Mantashe critical of ‘weak, disorganised’ Cosatu

[miningmx.com] – ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, laid into alliance partner, Cosatu, labelling the organisation weak, disorganised, and on a “slippery slope” if it continued its current form.

Citing Mantashe, who was speaking at Cosatu’s bargaining conference in Boksburg on March 12, BDLive said anarchy and rowdiness were also taking root in collective bargaining – a development which invited the state to intervene.

Cosatu was weak, its organisers and staff members were inexperienced and the federation was “downright slow”, BDLive quoted Mantashe to have said.

The quality of worker leaders had declined and its unions rarely had spokespeople, said the newspaper’s online publication. As a result, Cosatu was “… absent from the battle of ideas”.

“My conclusion is that Cosatu is on a dangerous downward slope. Unions are under siege and less equipped to deal with the difficult situations they face,” Mantashe said, although he added his observations were “from a distance”.

“Unions are fast replacing solid organisation with anarchy and therefore fast blunting this important tool of bargaining and striking. The federation is not only divided, but it is saying so itself, and thus weakening itself in the public eye,” Mantashe said.

His comments come amid signs in the last 12 months that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM’s) traditional position as the leading union in the mining sector was being unseated by the Associated Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).
Mantashe was a former leader of the NUM which is Cosatu’s largest affiliate.