Cape Town — The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said a coalition between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) would not work in favour of union workers.
After the ANC failed to obtain majority votes for the first time under democratic rule, winning just 40.1% of the overall votes. COSATU, one of the ANC’s tripartite alliance members, would reject a coalition with the DA, and deputy general secretary Solly Phetoe, said the DA would undermine workers rights, The Citizen reported.
“We will discourage and object to the possible coalition with the DA. We will never agree to any coalition the ANC is going to form with a political party that undermines the rights of the workers.” Phetoe said.
Phetoe expressed concern over the DA’s minimum wage laws, after the party said that high minimum wages lock people out of jobs, prioritise the interests of unions above the unemployed and protect uncompetitive local industries.
“This is the same party that in their manifesto went public and said when they’re in power they are going to reduce the public servant workforce. They are going to reduce the salary of the public servant.” Phetoe said.
According to National spokesperson for the SA Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) Trevor Shaku said an ANC-DA coalition will bring about economic doomsday for workers.
“Even if the ANC successfully prevents the repeal of the national minimum wage, it will be a coalition based on a neoliberal macro-economic framework,” Shaku said.
The ANC’s alliance partner Cosatu is rejecting any coalition with the Democratic Alliance. It accuses the main opposition of fighting against improving the rights of workers. #DStv403 #eNCA pic.twitter.com/RB0i9tfoz0
— eNCA (@eNCA) June 4, 2024
According to SABC News, COSATU spokesperson Matthew Parks, saying the DA supports anti-worker policies.
“Our concern with the DA is that the DA’s election manifesto speaks about scrapping labour laws, and you have the history of the DA since 1994 working against the labour laws. It would be impossible for us to agree to scrapping the labour laws or any workers’ rights. We are also concerned about the stability of a coalition government and what impact that would have on the ANC transformation mandate.” Parks said.
Business leaders have also encouraged political parties to accept the 2024 election results and work towards forming a stable coalition that puts the country first.
“We don’t want to see a chaotic coalition, we don’t want to see strained and ineffective decision making, we don’t want to see disunity within the coalition, we don’t want to see a coalition that is going to bring in a failure to implement even the most basic of services.” CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), Busisiwe Mavuso, said.
“We don’t want to see a chaotic coalition, we don’t want to see strained and ineffective decision making, we don’t want to see disunity within the coalition, we don’t want to see a coalition that is going to bring in a failure to implement even the most basic of services.” he added.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: X/@insightfactor
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Matthew Petersen
