By Nontando Ngamlana

When political organisations were unbanned in early 1990, the African National Congress (ANC), South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) agreed to work together and form a Tripartite Alliance (herein referred to as the alliance). The main aim for forming the alliance was to provide a somewhat inclusive vehicle of transformation in South Africa and a platform for discussion of new approaches and shifts in macro-economic policies.

Before we get into details about the state of affairs in the alliance, it is critical that we look at the background of each of the partner organisations.

The ANC was formed in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) to increase the rights of the black South African population. In 1923, the organisation became the ANC and formed its military wing in 1961. As the country’s major liberation movement, the ANC was dedicated to the elimination of apartheid. Between 1960 and 1990 the ANC was banned in South Africa and continued its activities underground with many of its members fleeing to exile. This strengthened the military wing of the ANC and, with support from other countries, was eventually able to bring down the apartheid regime.

The ban was lifted in 1991. Nelson Mandela, upon his release from prison, succeeded Oliver Tambo as president of the ANC. In 1994, the party swept the country’s first election based on universal suffrage; the ANC led a coalition government that initially included members of its long-time rival, the National Party, and Mandela became the first democratically elected president.

The SACP was formed in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). The main reason behind its formation was to be a united front against the involvement of workers in World War 1. Initially, the CPSA was dominated by white members and its actions were focused on white working-class interests. By the mid-twenties serious differences had developed among members of the CPSA, one group wanted to keep CPSA exclusively white, while another wanted more non-white members to join the party and this succeeded in 1924.

When the apartheid government came to power in 1948, it became suspicious of the CPSA’s role in political mobilisation of blacks. As part of its attempts to limit black resistance, the government banned communism in general and the CPSA specifically. Like the ANC, the party continued its activities underground until it was unbanned in 1990. In 1953, the name of the CPSA changed to the South African Communist Party (SACP). The SACP and the ANC seem to share broadly the same views about policy and tactics. The SACP adopted the Freedom Charter as a point of departure, but gave it a slightly different interpretation while the ANC accepted the Freedom Charter as a final aim, that of revolution; the SACP saw the aims of the Freedom Charter as a means to its end, i.e. a socialist state. The fact that Joe Slovo with his strong SACP ties became the first white person to be appointed to the national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC in 1985 was seen by some as a further indication of the close ties between the SACP and the ANC.

The fact that dual membership of the SACP and the ANC exists is an indication of the symbiotic relationship between these two organisations. Over the years, the SACP representation in the ANC grew rapidly; after the 1991 NEC elections of the ANC, an estimated 25 members out of 50 held dual membership.

It was in April 1990, that SACP delegates held talks with Cosatu delegates in Harare–a further indication of the interrelationship between the SACP and the ANC. It was decided on behalf of the ANC to disband Sactu, the trade union wing of the ANC/SACP alliance, and to include Cosatu formally in the revolutionary alliance. Subsequently, the Tripartite Alliance was born.

Cosatu is a trade union federation of South Africa founded in 1985. It is the biggest of the country’s trade union federations with about 21 affiliated trade unions. Cosatu was formed with an intention to unify workers and to curb competition amongst unions and federations. Cosatu also played a leading role in the struggle against apartheid through organising a range of highly effective wage strikes, general strikes and mobilising support in factories and towns across the country.

As part of the alliance, Cosatu’s role had always been that of influencing macro-economic policies in the country. This role has been the subject of debate, since the organisation has been critical of some of the ANC government’s policies. While some affiliates have argued for greater independence from the ruling political party, others have argued that the arrangement gives Cosatu a political influence beneficial to its members.

The post-apartheid reign of the tripartite alliance comes with new strains. The ANC’s programme did not and still does not threaten the existence of capitalism in South Africa and is heavily reliant on foreign investment and tourism, a fact which has been noted with contempt by both the SACP and Cosatu. During Thabo Mbeki’s term as President, the SACP served as an ideological opposition against the presidency and socio-economic policies of the government. This became most apparent with the ousting of Mbeki from the presidency by both the party and government, and his eventual replacement in both offices with Jacob Zuma, who is widely seen as being more conciliatory to the ideological demands of both the SACP and Cosatu.

It would appear that much of the tripartite alliance’s split problems came to the public domain around the time when Zuma was ousted from his position as deputy president following his linkages to the corruption trial of convicted fraudster businessman, Shabir Shaik. It soon turned out that Zuma was deeply loved by the ‘Far Left’ (communists and trade unions). He was seen to have extreme ‘left’ views and the communists and trade unions rallied around him in a big way.

Looking back, one would note that tensions amongst the alliance partners had always been there. These were evident through public written and verbal criticism of the ANC’s economic policies and its political management of the alliance, as well as the influence and the perpetuation of the black bourgeoisie. The SACP and Cosatu consistently relied on top-level consultation and processes to deal with their criticism. Such insider politics had been publicly and institutionally underpinned by offering whole-hearted electoral support to the ANC at each election, the consistent entrance into high-level government positions of leading members of the alliance ‘left’ and the closing of the ranks against left criticism, and struggles of the poor emanating from outside of the alliance.

Recent events have marked a shift from this usual business of the tripartite alliance where many on the left had become convinced of a substantial shift in the post-1994 character and content of alliance politics. More specifically, there appears to be a widespread feeling that an intensifying class war is taking place inside the alliance that could result either in its breakup or in a serious shake-up of internal power relations, especially within the ANC.

The basis for this perspective derives from the frenzy of personal and organisational, intra-alliance feuding that has been played out in various SACP, Cosatu and ANC discussion papers, the court system, the media, and within the structures of the three partners. When Jacob Zuma was elected ANC president in Polokwane in 2007, many thought that the matter was settled. The cabinet that Zuma appointed when he became president in 2009 was fairly inclusive with both Cosatu and the SACP leaders given positions, though some saw this as a strategy to manage the trade unionists that were in constant dispute with the Mbeki government.

The battle over the Reserve Bank’s inflation-targeting policy and Cosatu’s premature call for Zuma to serve more than one term were not really taken to heart; everyone believed that with Zuma as president the alliance had finally struck it right. It soon became clear that all was not well; in fact the relationship took its worst post-apartheid strain yet with disagreements and debates being played out in public, something that alliance partners had always managed to curb. There appears to be a battle for control between various groups within the ruling party and its alliance partners, a fact which ANC Youth League Julius Malema had always been alluding to.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe continuously tells Cosatu to ‘mind its own business’, a strange remark in the context of alliance politics. There are, however, underlying factors to the current feuds that had been played out recently, and one needs to note these. The first one is the elective national congress in September and, in order to be re-elected and keep their big fat salaries, the federation’s leaders have to convince their members that they remain fearless in their advancement and defence of workers’ rights. If they show any signs of softening on important issues, such as wage talks and inflation targeting, merely because their preferred political leader, Zuma is now president, they run the risk of being voted out.

Cosatu, therefore, has to put on a display of its seriousness in putting the needs of the workers first. This was clearly displayed in its criticism of the State of the Nation Address delivered by Zuma, and its claimed realisation that it ‘made a mistake for supporting Zuma as the individual instead of advocating strongly for policy shifts’. Cosatu is well aware that its close ties with the ruling party make it vulnerable to attacks from rival unions who want to convince its members that the federation does not put the interests of workers before all else–especially in the public sector. So, when medical doctors in the public sector took to the street for wage increases, Vavi had no choice but to throw his weight behind them.

As the succession debate intensifies within the ANC and as 2012 draws nearer, tensions between the alliance partners are escalating. The current bone of contention amongst others is the call by Cosatu supported by the SACP of a lifestyle audit. This new contentious issue comes in the wake of breaking news about multi-million Rand worth of tenders awarded to ANC Youth League President Julius Malema’s company by various municipalities in his home province. The investigation into Malema’s wealth was first instigated by the SACP. Both president Zuma and deputy president Kgalema Mothlante have said there was no need for the lifestyle audit.

The major public fallout between the ANC Youth League and the SACP was clear when Malema and other ANC leaders were booed by SACP delegates at its national conference. Adding fuel to a burning furnace in his address at the same conference, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande warned of anticommunist efforts by small factions within the ANC and the emergence of a new “class axis between sections of business and marginalised, alienated and unemployed youth.” Nzimande warned that this tendency was often clothed in militant rhetoric and portrayed as radical when in fact it was “right wing”.

Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe reported that “the NEC has noted with astonishment the disrespect shown by some leaders and structures of the movement to the decisions of the NEC, particularly relating to the succession debate ahead of 2012 national conference.” It is in fact true that the present battles are in reality a manifestation of long-running, intra-alliance elite jostling for future positions and power. And so as 2012 draws nearer, we watch the space in anticipation as the plot thickens.