Cosatu ANC NEC Statement 10 - 10 - 06

COSATU Media Release, 9th October 2006

Remarks of the ANC President concerning the SACP General Secretary

COSATU notes the ANC National Executive Committee statement dated 8th October and released this morning, and the ANC President's “notes for his political overview", mentioned in the statement, which Luthuli House issued in hard copy to members of the media, after it had already been leaked to the media.

COSATU condemns the leaking of these statements by faceless 'sources'. It helps newspaper to sell copies and increases their profits, but eventually this cancer will liquidate the whole movement and kill its vibrancy and culture of vigorous but constructive debate. It makes it impossible for the leaders of democratic organisations to engage in serious debate without fearing that what they say will end up in newspapers. You cannot speak frankly within a meeting if you know that anything you say may be leaked, distorted and sensationalised by the media.

Those responsible for these leaks are in blatant violation of the protocols of our Alliance, of which all components of the Alliance are duty-bound to defend.

Had the faceless sources not leaked the information we would not be faced with yet another strain in the Alliance. As one of the three main Alliance partners, COSATU would have preferred the debate in the NEC to have been completed, an agreed statement released in a manner that reflects the ANC’s responsibility to lead the Alliance and society as a whole. At its own pace the ANC could then, without any accompanying headlines, approach the Alliance to raise whatever concerns we may have. We have to go back to this way of conducting debates in the Alliance. This culture where we are propelled by editors to say something is going to kill this movement of Oliver Tambo.

However, now that the debate has entered the public arena, we are obliged to say that:

1. COSATU agrees with every word that SACP General Secretary, Blade Nzimande, made in excellent speeches at the 2006 Congresses of COSATU and SADTU. His views were totally in line with the policies expressed in the resolutions passed by 2,500 delegates representing 1.8 million workers at COSATU's 9th National Congress in September 2006. The same applies to those parts of the SACP's Discussion Document on State Power on the 1967 (Morogoro) ANC Strategy and Tactics document and the 1979 Green Book that the ANC President has taken exception to.

2. COSATU condemns the personalisation of arguments, which is particularly regrettable when these comments are leaked to the media who then use them to create a story around personal battles between individuals. Debate cannot be open and free in such an atmosphere, which amounts to intimidation.

At the two Ekurhuleni Alliance Summits, the Alliance agreed on guidelines on how to manage intra-Alliance relations, as best summarised in Ekurhuleni I Declaration of 7 April 2002, which said: "Having examined the causes and the impact of recent intense public discord among some components of the Alliance, the Summit concluded that this was an unfortunate development which we should not allow to recur. We do acknowledge that it would be artificial to expect that tensions would not exist among and even within components of the Alliance. The challenge is how we manage them within our constitutional structures, and use them as a catalyst for the growth and maturity of our organisations." These can be summarised as: "Don't personalise; don't label; and never question bona fides or the integrity of any component of leader of the Alliance".
By violating all three of these guidelines, and by leaking to the Media in a way calculated to stifle debate, the sections of the ANC leadership behind the leak have let the Alliance down badly and taken it backwards. What could have been a constructive, educational and internal debate is in danger of becoming a media spat.