STAFF REPORTER|
COSATU said on Thursday that the African National Congress (ANC) was in danger of losing the 2024 general elections if fails to cleanse itself of corruption, hooliganism and factionalism.
Addressing delegates at the SACP national congress under way at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni, COSATU president Zingisa Losi said the ANC needs the party and COSATU to help cleanse it of its demons, corruption, factionalism and hooliganism.
“We cannot afford to see the ANC deteriorate further. The ANC needs the party (SACP) and Cosatu to help cleanse it of its demons, corruption, factionalism and hooliganism,” said Losi.
Losi told SACP delegates that should attempts to rebuild the governing party fail, there was a real danger that it could lose the 2024 elections.
“An ANC that fails to secure 51% (of the vote) will struggle to form a coalition with opposition parties determined to destroy the alliance and reverse the many gains we have secured since 1994. This will be a devastating blow to the working class,” she said.
Losi agreed with former president Thabo Mbeki’s assertion that while unity is paramount in the ANC, it cannot be with those involved in criminality.
”Former president Mbeki is correct. There can be no unity with criminals. Those who have broken the law must go to prison, no matter their status in life,” she said.
“In fact, the failure of the the National Prosecuting Authority, the SAPS and the judiciary to ensure that the most senior criminals among us go to jail is exactly why the nation, the movement and the workers are in these crises.”
She further said that COSATU and workers were not wrong to place their faith in President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2017 and the ANC in 2019.
“We need to help restore the ANC to its path. To once again make it a movement that OR Tambo and Chris Hani would be proud of,” said Losi.
“To do this we need a vibrant, a united, a working class orientated SACP at the forefront. We need a party that provides the clarity of vision that Joe Slovo so often did.”
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