ANC faces election campaign in a state of political civil war
IN THE muddied circumstances of the gladiatorial contest between Sdumo Dlamini and Zwelinzima Vavi, only one thing is clear: the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will not be the effective partner of the African National Congress (ANC) in next year’s elections that it has been in the past.Since 1994, Cosatu has been the organisational arm of the ruling alliance.The ANC is the political flag bearer, the party with the cachet of having liberated the country from apartheid, but it is frankly sloppy when it comes to organisation.As for the South African Communist Party, it is a mouse beside its tripartite allies, a party with a membership the size of the population of Mthatha, the capital of the former Transkei Bantustan.Cosatu, on the other hand, is a structured body with a solid culture of organisational efficiency and a membership of about 2,2-million, which is more than double that of the ANC. It is Cosatu that brings out the voters at election time.But Cosatu is in di...
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