POLITRICKING: COSATU's Zingiswa Losi calls for Cabinet reshuffle, questions DA’s role in GNU

JOHANNESBURG - Trade union federation COSATU has added its voice to growing calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to reshuffle his Cabinet, not only that, but to constitute an executive that is sans members of the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Its president, Zingiswa Losi, who is on Politricking with Tshidi Madia, this week, told the EWN politics podcast that it makes no sense for the DA to continue in a government whose programmes it cannot support.

"As a country, we need to have a president that will be able to execute his authority mandate over his Cabinet, because for us… yes, we respect that the DA is a political party, but if the DA is in the Government of National Unity, it is ironic that you are part of government, but you are opposed to the decisions that government is taking," said Losi.

She said Ramaphosa must assist the country to move past the GNU deadlock.

Several members of the ANC national executive committee and its alliance partners are calling for the DA to be booted out of the coalition. It's widely understood that the DA wants to quit the formation but is seemingly waiting to be pushed out instead of walking out of its own volition.

The COSATU president also questioned the DA’s motives behind joining the GNU, arguing that it seemed this was done purely to elevate the organisation politically, to be seen as the only party truly governing the country. Losi said she didn’t believe the DA was ready for the responsibilities of national government.

"We don't think that they are ready, they've been making threats. We would welcome to see them opening the doors and leaving," she said.

The ANC has since opted to press the reset button on its coalition, announcing this week that it would revisit discussions with all its partners and those who helped it pass the first part of a series of hurdles required to get the budget approved in Parliament.

Losi, said the trade union federation, when it comes to the issue of increased VAT, has been very clear, first with its outright rejection of the 2% points increase and even the revised sum of 0.5 percentage point. This, it’s argued, is because COSATU believes South Africans simply do not want to deal with any kind of increase as it would inflate the costs of even basic goods.

And while there’s been much contestation over an adopted proposal put on the table by ActionSA to do away with the tax hike and income tax budget creep, with many arguing that it cannot be done within 30 days, Losi said COSATU welcomes the finance committee recommendations.

She hoped the agreement, which allowed for the passing of the fiscal framework in Parliament wasn’t just to manage South Africans.

COSATU’s own perspective would see National Treasury closing existing corporate tax loopholes, taxing the wealthy more and most critical, empowering the South African Revenue Service so that it's able to collect billions owed to the state.

The COSATU president also suggested reducing wasteful expenditure, which could see government doing away with some of the perks associated with the job and the continuous use of consultants.

President Ramaphosa’s bloated Cabinet was also not spared; Losi said there are just too many deputy ministers and ministries in the country.

"We just want an effective Cabinet that is going to be able to implement the progressive policies that we continue to pass in our country. We don't need so many of the deputy ministers in reality," she said.

Losi, who spent just over an hour discussing several other matters, also weighed in on both COSATU’s alliance partners and the growing need within the federation to prioritise its own mission of creating a more conducive environment for workers.

ANC’S NEXT CONFERENCE MIGHT MEAN INHERITING AN EMPTY SHELL

Of the ANC, she said that while a lot of lip service is paid to its new reality of no longer enjoying the country’s majority support, it doesn’t seem to fully understand its decline stemming from the 2024 general elections.

Losi accused some of the top leaders of the former liberation movement of being too concerned with its 2027 national conference, focusing their energies on who is to succeed Ramaphosa as party president.

"You know, some decisions are to test powers, because the ANC is going to its elective conference," she said.

This she said while the real health of ANC branches was being left to the wayside, where it’s no longer shocking to find branches and structures completely removed from he realities and experiences of ordinary South Africans.

Losi added that there was no realisation that the stampede towards the ANC’s next conference might mean inheriting an empty shell.

"Are they ready to become leaders of the opposition?" she asked.

She said the levels of decline of the ANC hadn’t fully dawned on many in the party.

When it comes to cleansing the organisation, driving it back to its original mission and using a new foundation cause as a path towards the party reclaiming its old virtues, Losi said the answer lies in the branches.

This she argues, is how the ANC was able to win the beachhead and produce the 1994 democratic breakthrough.

"Are ANC branches still leaders of society? We exist through statements and exist through congresses, when we must go and elect leadership? Do we have the branches? Can we define the branches for what they should be doing, other than elevating leaders to positions of power, and are we able to hold those leaders to account?" These are some of the questions she said party members had to ask themselves.

COSATU'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Losi stressed the need for COSATU, as it marks 40 years since it was established, to remember its raison d'être, its core purpose, which might push it further away from its alliance partners, the ANC and SACP.

"COSATU is focusing on uniting workers in South Africa beyond ourselves as a federation," she said.

"Our preoccupation is to have a strong trade union movement so that will exist beyond any political party in power," she added.

She said COSATU wasn’t even consulted by the ANC, which seems to be focusing on salvaging its relationship with the SACP, which resolved last year to contest the upcoming local government elections.

On the question of leaving the alliance, she said workers must assess what serves them best. This would be done at a central committee next year.

That meeting, set for September 2026, must also weigh in on the communist party’s bid to also appear on the ballot in the municipal polls.

"Can COSATU afford to be divided and be pulled by both political parties when we are not a political party," is one the many questions the federation’s affiliates must deliberate on.

As she grappled with the question of who to support between the two, a distrust of the SACP, after its previous pronouncement to contest the 2024 election, was abandoned is clear.

"There will come a time when the federation must make up its mind. Is it us dying with the two political parties or being weakened? Or is it us uniting workers because our members are members of all political parties?" said Losi.

Losi insisted that there might be a time when the federation will not dictate who its supporters should vote for.

She also said the communist party’s frustration with COSATU, for not coming out batting for it, is misplaced. Stating that the federation is the one that’s owed an apology by the SACP.

The political activist claims the communist party split COSATU right in the middle, when it told its affiliates at its 14th national congress in 2022 that it was ready to contest the next round of elections, only to walk back on that announcement by saying it was doing so within the alliance.

The SACP further submitted names to Ramaphosa of its members that it wants to serve in government, instead of outright rejecting the offer from the ANC, (a move, which is often defended by claims of SACP members holding dual membership in the ANC).

"We were left divided, we were left on our own after we have taken a decision, which the party called for us to take in our congress," she remarked.

Losi said what made matters worse now, was that the very same SACP, which showed it cannot be trusted, is holding bilaterals with the ANC, which she believes, if COSATU picked sides, might see it with egg on its face again.

"They are continuing to talk, and we are not part of those meetings. How do we know what they are discussing? The true sense of discussions, where are the commonalities or gaps?" she asked.

Losi concluded by saying COSATU could not handle further divisions.