BL Premium reports that as it sets up a special meeting to discuss its electoral support for the ANC, trade union federation Cosatu has fired a political shot across the bow of its political allay.

Cosatu has a standing resolution to support the ANC, but has said the alliance “faces a serious crisis of legitimacy in the build-up to local government elections”. Its central executive committee (CEC), which met last week, has instructed Cosatu’s national office bearers to convene a special meeting to focus and “deliberate at length on the matter of the local government elections and Cosatu’s [position] in this regard”. The federation also wants to hold a meeting with the SACP, the third member of the tripartite alliance, to discuss the current political situation. Cosatu’s support for the ANC, and Cyril Ramaphosa, has been under increasing pressure, especially given the government’s unrelenting stance on a wage freeze for public-sector workers, which is now set to last at least four years. Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the CEC meeting acknowledged there were “major problems facing workers that will make it hard to convince [them] to support the ANC during the upcoming elections ... Some of these challenges have left many workers feeling like they are being asked to vote against their own interests”. Cosatu also lamented the progress in implementing the ANC’s resolutions in terms of its economic policy.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Claudi Mailovich at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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