Cosatu's response to Smuts Ngonyama 06 - 21 - 06

COSATU's response to Smuts Ngonyama

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the comments made on SABC News by Smuts Ngonyama, the head of the presidency of the ANC, in response to the SA Communist Party's criticisms of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) programme, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and moves towards a capitalist State.

Smuts Ngonyama said that "At each major turn, particularly in the 1997 and 2002 (ANC conferences), alliance partners took part in the discussion on these issues. The resolution that emerged from these assemblies not only became official policy of the ANC, but also reflected the broad views of the alliance."

This comment betrays a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the Alliance between the ANC, COSATU and the SACP. Each component is represented at the congresses and conference of the other, but is bound only by the decisions of its own policy-making structure. According to Comrade Ngonyama's logic, if the SACP and COSATU must bear responsibility for decisions taken at ANC Conferences in which they participated, the ANC, which participates in all COSATU Congresses, should equally be bound by their decisions.

This is obviously absurd. The reality is that the three allies are independent bodies, each with its own constitution, programmes and policies, who work together on issues of common concern where there is consensus. While policies converge on many issues, they also diverge on others, and each partner has the right to disagree with the others on specific issues such as GEAR.

The three organisations cannot possibly therefore be mandated by all three congresses simultaneously.