GNU power-sharing deal leaves COSATU expecting sticky upcoming wage negotiations

JOHANNESBURG - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) expects a tough time at the upcoming public sector wage negotiations after some key Cabinet portfolios were handed over to opposition parties in a power-sharing deal post elections.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)’s Mzamo Buthelezi was appointed Minister of Public Service and Administration earlier in July as part of the Government of National Unity (GNU).

ALSO READ: COSATU says it wasn't part of negotiations in ongoing GNU talks

COSATU leaders now appear to be worried about the impact the new administration will have on negotiations.

In the build-up to elections, the tripartite alliance including the African National Congress (ANC), COSATU, and the South African Communist Party (SACP) appear to be strained by what some perceived as the ANC’s inability to hold up its end of the deal.

Unions threatened to pull their support for the ANC at the polls if the party failed to give in to wage demands by public servants.

While a two-year deal is still in place, COSATU President Zingiswa Losi said negotiations for the 2025/26 financial year are set to be sticky.

“This is what we were saying to some of the ministers, we were saying, ‘These are the six priorities of the ANC election manifesto, and they have to find expression in the programme of your department in the seventh administration’. We must, therefore, ensure that the deployees who fail to deliver are held accountable and recalled where necessary.”

Losi made the comments during the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU)’s national political school in Boksburg on Monday.