COSATU President Zingiswa Losi on Monday dragged the country’s biggest trade union federation back from self-destruction, opening its 15th National Congress with an admission that factions have humiliated the movement and a direct order to delegates to unite or die.
After the spectacle of an adjourned congress last month that exposed deep factional battles and left the federation in tatters, Losi used her opening address to confront the rot head-on.
“This past month has been a painful chapter for COSATU. As we conclude the 40th anniversary of this product of generations of workers, we have been embarrassed by the spectacle of an adjourned congress. This is a moment that does not bring pride to any among us,” Losi told delegates gathered at Emperors Palace, east of Johannesburg.
“We have descended into factions, to label each other as enemies who must be destroyed at all costs, even if we destroy COSATU. We have been down this road of division, and it does not end well. It weakens the Federation, it demoralises workers, it emboldens our class enemies. It is enough.”
According to Losi, if COSATU continues down the path of litigation and personal ambition, it will become what the September Commission warned about – a “Scorched Earth” or “Skoro Skoro” union: irrelevant, scrap.
“Let this adjourned Congress mark the moment when all of us step back from the precipice, unite and put aside our differences and place the unity of the Federation and the interests of the working class ahead of our individual ambitions,” she said.
Losi reminded the 2,000 delegates that their real enemies are not each other.
“There is no enemy amongst us. Our enemy is unemployment and exploitation, poverty and inequality, crime and corruption, racism and sexism, homophobia and gender-based violence. We must never forget that.”
The congress resumes at a critical moment – just weeks before the most difficult elections since 1994 on November 4, with the ANC-led Tripartite Alliance on the ropes and COSATU itself battling membership decline.
Losi did not shy away from defending the Alliance, invoking former president Nelson Mandela to silence those in COSATU calling for a divorce.
“The ANC would not exist without the SACP and COSATU. Nor can the SACP exist without the ANC and COSATU. COSATU would not be what it is today without the ANC and the SACP. We are one movement,” she said.
“We will not abandon it when times are tough.”
She said the Central Committee mandate remains binding – to summon the Alliance Political Council, reconfigure the Alliance, and unleash a unifying election campaign to ensure victory on November 4.
“Our enemy is not the ANC. We are one with the African National Congress of Oliver Tambo and Mose Kotane. We are one with the SACP of Joe Slovo and Chris Hani.”
Losi used the speech to flex COSATU’s recent victories – from doubling retrenchment pay and protecting the National Minimum Wage, to forcing listed companies to disclose executive pay and unlocking over R80 billion for 4 million workers through the Two Pot Pension Reforms.
She hailed the R253 billion Eskom Debt Relief Package – a COSATU idea that was ridiculed – for ending load shedding.
But she warned that the war is not over, slamming employers who rob workers of pension funds and municipalities like Impendle in KZN where workers went four months unpaid.
“We must charge these employers with theft and ensure they are arrested,” she said.
With 43.8% unemployment, Losi said COSATU must demand an end to austerity and push for a bold stimulus package ahead of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on October 21.
“It is time government abandoned tried and failed notions of neo-liberalism and austerity budgets,” she said.
The task now, she said, is to rebuild. Recruit beyond comfort zones – in call centres, restaurants, farms and taxi ranks. Bring back NUMSA, FAWU and SAFPU. Grow from 1.6 million to 2 million members by the 16th Congress.
“We are the farm workers who grow the food we eat, the clothing workers who sew the clothes we wear, the nurses and doctors who deliver the children we love… We are the defenders of the working class, and we will never tire in our struggles,” Losi said.
The congress is expected to elect its new leadership soon, with Losi believed to be vying for the secretary-general position while Mike Shingange is a hopeful for president.
