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Trevor Manuel, head of the National Planning Commission in the presidency.

Battle lines drawn in SA ruling alliance

Jan de Lange | Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:53
[miningmx.com] -- WE'VE known it for years: the gulf between the ANC and Cosatu is so great that sooner or later there must be a parting of ways.

The current euphoria over the close bond existing between Jacob Zuma's ANC and Zwelinzima Vavi's Cosatu should fool no-one: less than five years ago this alliance was on the verge of collapse, and today it is still not far from that point.

The scrap about Trevor Manuel and his Green Paper looks like a personal attack on him. "During his term as Minister of Finance the budget was used to determine budget preferences in a narrow sense, to undermine and block ANC policy... when it did not suit Treasury's neoliberal framework," declares a paragraph in a draft resolution at the recent Cosatu Congress.

This paragraph was deleted to satisfy ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, but the remainder of the resolution is hardly less personal.

"Treasury's blind faith in market forces and a minimalist role for the state in the economy has deprived government of an opportunity to build up proper planning capacity," reads the following paragraph.

Further down support is expressed for Cosatu's man in the cabinet, Ebrahim Patel.

Don't sympathise with Manuel too much - he can give as good as he gets. The point is that such language is inappropriate in public between Alliance partners who recently overwhelmingly won an election.

What is at issue here is who will have the power over economic policy and decision-making - Manuel or Patel.

In the flood of contradictions about the national democratic revolution, the consolidation of socialism, affirmative action, black economic empowerment [black capitalism] and the evil of corruption which is slowly eroding order, the battle between Manuel and Patel, in the eyes of the 2,700 or so attending the Congress, is the essential issue with which they can identify.

According to Vavi there is no Minister of Planning. Manuel is simply the minister in the presidency and responsible for the National Planning Commission that is to be established.

But the Green Paper refers repeatedly to the Minister of Planning. Manuel is far too experienced and aware of his enemies in the ANC to arrogate to himself a role such as this without having already received a mandate for it.

The Green Paper was not written behind closed doors - he would have discussed it with his president long and vigorously beforehand.

The dispute will now be wrestled out in an Alliance summit. It's a fairly structured theme with fair opportunity for compromise. The ANC and Cosatu will not easily split over this issue.

But the same cannot be said about the other major bone of contention - trade unions in the Defence Force.

The Labour Relations Act, which was adopted in 1996, banned trade unionism in the Defence Force and the National Intelligence Service.

One of the small Defence Force unions however approached the Constitutional Court and in 1999 the court explicitly ruled that the banning of unions from these two institutions was in breach of the constitution.

Very few soldiers are trade union members today, but Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu, his Minister of Defence, want to outlaw trade unionism in the country's Defence Forces once again. According to Zuma, the ANC's national executive committee had wide-ranging discussions in this regard last week, and he goes along with the decision.

The government will inevitably have to amend the Constitution to do this. It will need the assistance of the opposition parties, but this should not be too difficult to get.

"How long will it be before they come up with similar suggestions in other sectors?" asked a delegate at the Cosatu Congress.

But instead of trying to settle matters within Alliance structures, Cosatu has chosen direct confrontation. The resolution that its congress adopted in this regard says that Cosatu will actively work on establishing a strong, single trade union within the Defence Force.

At a news conference on Friday Vavi confirmed that this included an intense recruitment campaign. "We will not agree to the banning of trade unions from the Defence Force. Here the law is on our side. The court's ruling in this matter is explicit - that such a prohibition is at variance with the Constitution.

"We will intensify our efforts and recruit as many as possible of the country's soldiers for union membership," Vavi declared.

He is therefore literally challenging the sovereignty of both the state and the president of the country. The chaotic clash between soldiers and the police at the union buildings three weeks ago is the sort of protest action that no government can and will countenance.

Any employer that has had to deal with trade unions knows what it means if a union begins active recruitment among its staff.

It's nothing less than an attack on the employer's authority. The question is: why did Zuma and the ANC's NEC decide to flatly ban trade unions in the SA Defence Force?

In countries with high union penetration and protected worker rights, like South Africa, defence force trade unions are often permitted, but they have no right to embark on strikes or mass action. There is no reason why this cannot apply here as well.

It would appear that Zuma and the ANC have decided to draw a line in the sand for Cosatu. If this is the case, the balloon goes up within the alliance. This is not the sort of fight that can be settled behind doors - someone will emerge second best.

- Sake24.com

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