Hope Ntanzi|Published
ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has hit back at ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji over his criticism of the decision to leave the Cosatu congress, saying the youth leader is too young to understand the traditions of the tripartite alliance.
Mantashe defended his decision not to address the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) congress after a dispute over the order of speakers, insisting that the African National Congress (ANC) was entitled to protect its dignity and position in the alliance.
Malatji described the incident as irresponsible and said it portrayed the ANC as an arrogant organisation, while calling for older leaders to make way for younger members.
“Collen Malatji is too young to understand the tradition,” Mantashe said during an interview with the SABC.
He said he did not want to engage Malatji publicly on the matter, adding that the alliance had a longstanding culture that should not be changed arbitrarily.
“I don't want to engage with him in public on this matter, because I would imagine that when we formed Cosatu in 1985, in which conference I was a delegate, I'm sure he was very young if he was born,” Mantashe said.
Malatji criticised Mantashe following the incident at the Cosatu congress, where the ANC national chairperson left after disagreeing with the speaking order.
“Pensioners are killing the ANC every day,” Malatji said.
“He went there thinking that he was representing his jacket and his family. He forgot that he went there to address the working class on behalf of the African National Congress.”
Malatji said the ANC could not dictate to Cosatu when it should speak at a congress hosted by the trade union federation.
“The ANC, it is not an arrogant organisation. We can't go to a conference of COSATU and tell COSATU what time we want to speak and when we want to speak, when we are invited at a conference of COSATU,” he said.
He also called for Mantashe to retire, saying younger members should take over the party and correct its course.
“The sooner he retires, with his friends the better, so that we take over the ANC and correct it,” Malatji said.
“And if they don't retire for long, the youth of the African National Congress must rise and remove them out of position and install ourselves.”
Dispute over alliance speaking order
Mantashe rejected the description of his departure as a walkout, saying he had simply chosen not to speak.
“When you call this a walkout, you are exaggerating the reality. I didn't speak. I stayed at a point I left. That is not a walkout,” he said.
He argued that the order of speakers reflected the historical relationship between the alliance partners and should not be changed for convenience.
“Traditionally, there is an order in the alliance. I do my own analysis. I think that birth dates have everything to do with that. The ANC was born 1912, departed 1921. Cosatu 1985 and SANCO, 1992. And that order stands every time,” Mantashe said.
He said the ANC traditionally spoke before Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP) when the three organisations delivered messages of support at alliance events.
Mantashe said changing the speaking order without discussion amounted to questioning the ANC's leadership of the alliance.
“Our view is that that thing of just changing the order is actually changing the order of authority and actually questioning the leadership of the alliance in a practical way in a conference,” he said.
Mantashe maintained that the ANC remained the leader of the tripartite alliance unless a different arrangement was formally agreed upon.
“The leader of the alliance is the ANC. That remains until there can be a different resolution. There's no such a resolution. The ANC is the leader of the alliance, and that's it,” he said.
Cosatu president Mike Shingange has said the federation would raise the incident at future alliance engagements, including bilateral meetings and the alliance's political council.
Shingange said delegates had expressed disappointment over what happened and called for the ANC to consider sanctioning Mantashe, although he said that decision rested with the party.
He described the incident as minor compared with what he considered an otherwise successful congress, but warned that it could fuel tensions within the alliance.
Mantashe rejects predictions of alliance fallout
Mantashe said he had not drawn conclusions about the implications of Cosatu's newly elected leadership for its relationship with the ANC.
He said it would be premature to predict how the relationship would develop before the ANC had engaged the new leadership.
The ANC national chairperson said the relationship would depend on agreement over the alliance's programme and principles, including worker control and the principle of one industry, one union, one country and one federation.
He warned that neglecting those principles could weaken Cosatu.
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