Cosatu congress collapse shows alliance is falling apart

The unprecedented collapse of Cosatu’s 15th national congress this week is yet another sign the ANC-led tripartite alliance is in disarray.

Heated debates among affiliates, coupled with scuffles on the congress floor, evoked memories of the ANC’s Eastern Cape provincial congress in October 2017, when delegates hurled plastic chairs at one another in KuGompo City, formerly East London.

President Cyril Ramaphosa himself dubbed that spectacle the “festival of chairs”.

At Gallagher Convention Centre this week, the chaos replayed itself, mercifully without airborne furniture.

Affiliates openly clashed over the labour federation’s future, with delegates challenging each other in ways never before seen in Cosatu.

The flashpoint was whether the organisation’s deputy president, Mike Shingange, was eligible to succeed incumbent Zingiswa Losi.

The National Union of Mineworkers and others backed Shingange, while the rest opposed him.

In a dramatic twist, Shingange’s own union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), placed him on precautionary suspension just before the congress, raising eyebrows about its timing and motives.

Why suspend a leader on the eve of a crucial elective congress where he was poised to ascend to the presidency of South Africa’s largest and most influential labour federation?

The presidency carries historic weight.

Founded in 1985 as a successor to the struggle-era SA Congress of Trade Unions, it has been central to labour politics. Elijah Barayi, a former mineworker, was its first president.

For Nehawu, Shingange’s elevation should have been a moment of pride. Instead, its deepened the crisis and hastened the congress’ collapse.

The breakdown was signalled early, when affiliates refused to submit their credentials – an unprecedented move that effectively blocked proceedings.

On the second day of the four-day event, the congress ended abruptly as disagreements multiplied.

Even had the meeting proceeded, Cosatu faced thorny choices.

Chief among them was whether to endorse the ANC or the SA Communist Party (SACP) in the local government elections on 4 November. Either decision risked deepening internal divisions.

Outside the venue, street poles and fences were plastered with ANC and SACP posters, strategically placed to attract congress delegates, but a visual reminder of the looming choice.

Cosatu’s dilemma is the choice confronting it. Its debt to the ANC is material: rooted in the mass democratic movement, its members were deployed to state positions and benefiting from state resources since 1994.

Its debt to the SACP is ideological: a shared Marxist-leaning vision. Choosing the SACP could be the final rupture with the ANC.

Many in the federation doubt the SACP’s capacity to sustain itself as a separate entity. And many members reliant on state income may see the ANC as the safer bet.

The split is already visible. Some affiliates lean toward the ANC, while others gravitate to the SACP’s ideological purity.

The ANC’s purge of SACP members from state positions – including councillors on SACP candidate lists – has only further muddied the waters.

If the ANC escalates by dismissing SACPaligned MPs, MPLs, mayors and Cabinet ministers, the alliance could fracture irreparably.

Cosatu’s congress collapse is more than a procedural failure, it mirrors the alliance’s fragility.

The federation now finds itself paralysed by factionalism, ideological rifts and leadership crises.