COSATU: 'ANC's Future At Stake'

"The newly elected NEC won't fail South Africans, because they know what's at stake," a Cosatu spokesperson said.
Open Image Modal
Cosatu members marching against corruption and state capture last year.
Getty Images

The ANC's alliance partner, Cosatu, says it believes the newly elected national executive committee (NEC) will not fail South Africans when deciding whether to recall President Jacob Zuma during its meeting on Monday.

The ANC, along with Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP), will meet on Tuesday morning for an alliance secretariat meeting at which the outcomes of Monday's NEC meeting will be discussed.

Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said the labour federation trusts the ANC's leadership.

"The fact that [the ANC leaders] did not shy away from the issue is enough for us to trust them with this matter. The newly elected NEC won't fail South Africans, because [it] understands what's at stake. It is the future of the ANC that is at stake," Pamla said.

"All things considered, we think they will pass the test. We need to give them the space to utilise their internal processes. They were elected in December, and a month later they began dealing with the elephant in the room. We must give them the benefit of the doubt."

The ANC's NEC, the party's highest decision-making body, is expected to meet at the St.George's Hotel in Irene at 2pm. This comes after private negotiations between ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and Zuma on his resignation as head of state reportedly failed last week.

SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo said the party does not want to speculate on the outcome of the NEC meeting.

"We had a meeting of SACP officials [on Monday morning] and although I cannot talk about the agenda, the officials do conduct a political review. We don't want to speculate on the NEC meeting for now. We must deal with things as they happen, Mashilo said.