The Government of National Unity (GNU) that will include the Democratic Alliance (DA) would not be in the interest of the majority who rejected the DA and its moonshot pact, according to Cosatu president Mike Shingange. He warned that the ANC's GNU was based on political parties' own interest and not nation-building.
Shingange said the 2024 GNU was different from the one in 1994, stating that the old one was mainly serving the country.
He spoke on the sidelines of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) policy conference in Boksburg on Tuesday. The SACP was present in the conference.
He said the aim of the MultiParty Charter (MPC) was to dethrone the ANC.
"This GNU is not the one of 1994, this one is the GNU of not united people but opposition parties. The one of 1994 there was a single agenda of building the country," he said.
He said they were not fond of the ANC-DA coalition because the official opposition "made it clear that they do not like us."
Some of the reasons he stated as to why they don't want the DA, was that the party called the United Nations and the US, inviting them to monitor the 2024 national and provincial elections in South Africa.
"They called them to prevent foreign interference because to them, the US is not a foreign country... It's only foreign when it's Zimbabwe or SADC," he said.
He said the DA opposed everything that the ANC put to table, "so why go with people who don't want you."
However, Shingane said they respect the ANC's decision on this but hoped that this would not compromise the workers. He told the conference that this was an opportunity for them to respond to the effects of the GNU.
"We have an opportunity in this conference to say whatever is going to be the content is going to affect us, therefore in our research and negotiations as trade unions, we must respond to the phenomenon GNU," he said.
He stated that the GNU will come with flaws including its policies that might lead to old policies being reversed.
He pleaded with ANC not to compromise the majority's interest for the sake of business with the GNU project.
"We have always bent backwards towards the business. We have always accommodated the investor's interests. We have always accommodated rating agencies. We have always accommodated rating agencies and businesses, which have always demanded a conducive environment to do business," he said.
Although that was done, Shingange said they continued to retrench the workers, stressing that they were losing power bit by bit.
Meanwhile, ANC NEC member Buti Manamel, who also attended the conference, told IOL that all coalition-related frustrations and grievances by the trade unions will be addressed before the decision can be reached.
IOL Politics