The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has gathered in the Eastern Cape to elect new provincial office bearers. This comes as the federation faces increasing pressure from a rival federation, the South African Federation of Trade Unions.
Cosatu’s Secretary-General Bheki Ntshalintshali says Cosatu continues to play a leading role as the voice of the poor on key issues of the country.
“ If you look to the contribution that we have when we raising our voice on corruption and state capture and the removal of President Zuma, if you look to our call to the then deputy president of the ANC to be elected to be a president of the country and you look to the outcome of the resolution of the ANC in Nasrec, you can’t ignore, you can accept that we make a contribution. If you look to the question of the how we are dealing with the national minimum wage including the amendment in labour law, the workers still got confidence in Cosatu.”
Cosatu’s Eastern Cape Secretary, Xolani Malamlela, says the new leadership should direct its energy towards fighting social ills and strengthening relations between the alliance partners.
“ We think we have to take this unity of Cosatu to our alliance components because it is clear in other alliance components the ANC provincial conference affected them negatively. It is our responsibility as Cosatu in the province to make sure that the alliance is united. Secondly we have to look after we have analysed the socio economic report, what are the challenges, why our province is leading in unemployment.”
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