COSATU message of support to the ANC delivered by General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi on the occasion of the launch of the manifesto and the election campaign, 10 January 2009

 Deputy President of the ANC, comrade Kgalema Motlanthe;

Officials and members of the National Executive Committee of the ANC;

COSATU President, comrade Sdumo Dlamini and members of the Central Executive Committee, provincial leaders and members and supporters of COSATU;

General Secretary of the SACP, comrade Blade Nzimande, and members of the Central Committee, activists and members of our working class vanguard party;

Inkosi and all the traditional leadership of our people;

Religious leaders;

Leaders and members of the mass democratic movement; and

Diplomats and dignitaries; and fellow comrades and compatriots

The Congress of South African Trade Unions joins millions to salute the African National Congress on its 97th Anniversary, three years shy of its centenary. The formation of the ANC in 1912 opened a new chapter in the struggles against colonial dispossession and capitalist exploitation.

The most singular achievement of the ANC was to overcome the tribal, racial, gender and class divide to unite our people in a common struggle to defeat the tyranny of racial supremacy; colonial domination and class and gender oppression.  The triumph of the democratic forces over the racial supremacist ideology in 1994 is forever etched in the history of mankind as a defeat of an inhuman system of apartheid.

Today also marks an important milestone in the history of our young democracy. The ANC once again, with humility, calls upon the people of South Africa to refresh its mandate to continue the task of national reconstruction to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.  The manifesto, to be unveiled today, represents the programmatic expression of the ANC's commitments to our people. We have no doubt that our people will return the ANC to power with an even more significant victory.

We do not say this out of arrogance or taking our people for granted. Our people know and trust the ANC, which has provided a coherent vision for building a new society for more than 90 years.  The people know that the ANC is sincere in its undertakings and fully grasp that the challenges of more three hundred years cannot be overcome in fifteen years.  The people further understand that not to vote for the ANC represents political suicide and a defeat of the vision entrenched in the Freedom Charter.

COSATU is proud to be in alliance with this mass movement that has led our people for nearly a century. We support the manifesto for two main reasons. First, the process has been more participatory and inclusive. Second, the message resonates with the aspirations of the workers and the majority of our population. COSATU will spare no effort to ensure an overall victory of the ANC in the forthcoming general elections.

For nearly 15 years, the ANC has been leading and a ruling party. Its record speaks for itself. It has been 15 years of protecting workers rights and delivering basic services to our people. The elections manifesto and the booklet circulated by COSATU in this rally detail this progress and advances. It is important that we talk about these advances frequently. Let our people not be confused and misled by those claiming that there has been no change.

The impact of these economic and social policies has seen significant reductions in the level of severe poverty and improvement in the quality of life of millions of South Africans. Significant progress was made, therefore, toward the vision of creating a united, non-racial and non-sexist society.  

Of course, as most ANC members will be the first to admit, we still have a long way to go before we can claim we have overcome the apartheid legacy. The struggle continues and the ANC still has a revolutionary duty, as both the ruling party and a liberation movement, to unify our people for the attainment of the Freedom Charter's vision.

The task facing activists as we prepare for the elections is to defend the ANC from the coalition of anti-ANC forces. It is a wakeup call to all of us not to take the ANC's electoral support for granted. The ANC also has to intensify the process of change so that it benefits the masses of our people. Otherwise new prophets will emerge, and have emerged, to promise that they can do better than the ANC.  Comrades, it will be a victory for these forces if we let our majority slip. The only way we can silence all these critics and doubting Thomases is to work harder and harder to ensure a decisive victory for the ANC!

At this rally to launch the manifesto we want to once again reiterate the basic conditions without which these commitments will be hollow.

• Without a strong and united ANC structures on the ground we are doomed.
• We must retain and strengthen the best traditions of our movement. In particular we should strengthen the principle which has guided the ANC for 97 years now - selflessness. We must deliberately and systematically seek to defeat the new traditions of selfishness, crass materialism and factionalism.
• As we finalise the lists of our cadres that will represent us in parliament let us make sure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past years. Only those truly committed to our ideals deserves our support.
• As we constitute the new government let us make sure that only the best talents available in our movement lead our people. The days when leaders were appointed into important positions only on the basis of their membership of a dominant faction should cease. Mediocrity, inefficiency, nepotism, cronyism and corruption belong to the past. Those found guilty of all these practises must be shown the door.

Armed with the policies of Polokwane, the ANC has created the expectation that it will now speed up the drive to eradicate the last vestiges of apartheid colonialism and complete the National Democratic Revolution.

COSATU remains committed to the tripartite alliance.  As a true friend of the ANC we shall support and raise objections to policies that we do not support.  However, the challenge of the political leadership is to narrow that gulf that almost destroyed the alliance. To that end we must attend to the task of building strong organisations, starting with trade union, ANC and SACP branches up to the provincial and national levels, so they can more effectively pursue the all-important task of mobilising our people.

The elected leadership should also not forget that they serve at the behest of the people and shall be removed if they stray from the mandate. For that reason, we should not allow the blackmail to continue with failed economic and discredited policies. We must use this mandate to signal a new course to transform our society to rid it of the scourge of inequality, poverty, unemployment and crime.

COSATU will be right behind you and with you the best during the occasion of the 97th anniversary of the ANC.

The people united shall never be defeated!

Together we shall overcome and ensure a decisive victory for the ANC!

Amandla!

Statement issued by COSATU January 10 2009