The Possible Charging of Vavi Exposes the Fragile State of Nominal Unity in the ANC/SACP and COSATU Alliance
The ANC NWC's possible disciplinary hearing against COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, on the basis that he criticized President Zuma and his cabinet (seemingly a cardinal sin), is absurd and a rude awakening for the Left to the state of unity in the ANC/SACP and COSATU Alliance. Contrary to its claims of unity in the post Polokwane Alliance, the Left should really start to be alert to the fact that actual unity in the Alliance can never be achieved only on the basis of concessions to filling certain cabinet and other positions with Left leaning individuals.
Alliance Summits and other bilaterals, important as these may be, are never enough in dealing with deep seated ideological and class differences in the Alliance. A long and difficult process to foster actual unity in the Alliance must go beyond Alliance Summits and bilaterals into achieving tangible results on vexing political and policy questions.
This imminent disciplinary hearing also sends a strong message that unity in the Alliance is not an automatic consequence following the victory of one group over the other in the leadership contest within the ANC. In fact the opposite is more likely given the political and ideological fluidity immediately following such a strong leadership contest.
Further, the response to these reports by both COSATU and the SACP saying these are non ideological actions of a small group that seeks to undermine the ‘unity' of the Alliance achieved post Polokwane, ostensibly serves to mislead on the deep seated ideological challenges that are at the centre of divisions within the Alliance.
It is common knowledge that the Alliance is a higher plane for ideological contestation on various matters. For instance, at the core of the question on the political centre lay an ideological contestation about the direction the country needs to take. This in itself makes the Alliance a centre for occasional group divisions along basic ideological questions facing our movement. The claim by the Left that the forces that are hell bent on undermining the current nominal unity and proper functioning of the Alliance have no ideological character would therefore seem a false assumption. This assumption presupposes that Polokwane defeated completely the ideological current that sought to transform the ANC into a modern social democratic party which emphasises a significant role of the market forces in the South African economic policy trajectory and national development.