By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Picture by Jabu Khumalo.
Cosatu has called for unity in the African National Congress (ANC) and expressed its support for the party.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said on Thursday the ANC cannot live in two worlds.
“We don’t understand how the ANC become two ANCs, the ANC in government and ANC in conference resolution. If you take a decision in a conference to implement this, we don’t understand why then government employees will do differently.”
“We said it must be the ANC that is instructing the government, not the government that now says to the ANC you were crazy taking these resolutions, it’s not implementable, which is in relation to the government policies for example. Within the ANC officials, some of them said no the decision that was taken to step aside which they were part of it they seem to say now, no it’s not implementable,” said Ntshalintshali.
He said the federation would call an urgent meeting with the ANC and they must be serious in dealing with the issue of two centres.
“We support and appreciate the 30 days step-aside even though we are not convinced what will happen in 30 days but we said if you need time to implement it, we will wait and see, 30 days is not a long period. We hoped by then we would get assurance from the leadership of the ANC, “said Ntshalintshali.
Cosatu convened a special central executive committee meeting to discuss its perspective and approach to the upcoming local government.
Ntshalintshali said many strategic meetings of the ANC, in particular its policy conferences, the national general council and the NEC have consistently emerged with progressive policies.
He said most if not all ANC resolutions and policies subscribe to a form of radical social transformation, but the key problem is the inability to enforce and monitor compliance with the ANC policies.
Ntshalintshali has also slammed the ANC-led government and accused it of “incompetence with deadly consequences” over failure to timeously implement the Covid-19 vaccination rollout programme.
He said while the federation had noted the announcement by health minister Zweli Mkhize on the government’s intention to resume phase 1 and begin phase 2 of inoculation as well as the process of securing various vaccines around the world, this was at a very slow pace.
With only 250,000 of the 1.25m targeted frontline workers having been vaccinated to date, Ntshalintshali said the federation was strongly opposed to the government’s pushing meeting the targeted 67% immunisation rate for herd immunity to June 2022 despite it being initially scheduled for later this year.
“We reject this proposal. Workers cannot be sacrificed because of the government’s incompetence. Delaying the vaccinations of teachers and police officers, of mining, energy and transport workers, is not the solution and must be rejected by all sane persons who understand the need for the economy to recover,” Ntshalintshali said.
The government indicated that it was expecting about 30m doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is being produced at Aspen Pharmacies in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, of which the first batch would be received this month.