Zabalaza for Socialism (ZASO) notes with deep concern the collapse of COSATU’s 15th National Congress in Midrand, an outcome that could not have come at a worse moment for South Africa’s working classes and the poor.
This Congress mattered because it convened at a moment when multiple crises are tearing the country apart. Mass unemployment is now approaching 50%, the economy is stagnating and deindustrialising, and the jobs bloodbath continues, driven by a capitalist class that sees nothing beyond profit even as the country comes apart under the accumulated weight of austerity, industrial-scale corruption, and government dysfunction at every level. In this context, the absence of a united working-class movement is a strategic catastrophe. Fragmentation is the enemy of the working class, and unity can only be built by confronting the concrete issues facing workers and the poor head-on, not least the growing threat of xenophobia, which divides precisely those who most need to stand together.
ZASO looked forward to the outcomes of this Congress in so far as it would help give direction on struggle for jobs, on the provision of basic services, on reindustrialisation, on a just transition, and on the difficult political challenges facing the workers and the poor. We were under no illusions of a dramatic shift in COSATU policy. Nevertheless, we hoped for a clear and unambiguous statement: rejection of the Government of National Unity, rejection of neoliberalism in all its forms — austerity, privatisation, liberalisation — and a resolute call for working-class unity.
Instead, the Congress collapsed into procedural disarray before these questions could even be properly engaged. This is precisely the fragmentation we warned against. A crisis of this magnitude demands that the workers’ movement rise above narrow factional and leadership battles and recover the best traditions of COSATU as a fighting federation. Procedural infighting and factionalism leaves the field open to capital, to a government that cannot deliver, and to reactionary forces that would rather see workers divided along national lines than united against exploitation.
ZASO calls on COSATU, its affiliates, and all genuine working-class formations to recognise the urgency of this moment. When Congress reconvenes, the issues facing workers and the poor, especially jobs, services, reindustrialisation, a just transition, and unequivocal opposition to austerity and privatisation must be placed at its centre. The long journey of rebuilding a united workers’ movement cannot be deferred. The crisis facing the working class will not wait for internal disputes to be resolved at its expense.
