The Congress of South African Trade unions congratulates its allies, the African National Congress, on their victory in the overwhelming majority of municipalities in the local government elections on 18 May 2011.
With over 60% of the vote the ANC has proved once again that it is still the party of the people, particularly the workers and the poor.
We wish all the newly elected councillors success as they begin to tackle the formidable challenges that lie ahead.
The federation thanks all its members who worked tirelessly to help the ANC on the road to victory. Their work has strengthened the alliance at grass-roots level and proved the value of unity in action in the struggle for the liberation of our people from poverty, unemployment and inequality. Together we have defeated the parties of the rich who would like to take us back to the days of apartheid.
It was not an easy election for the ANC. Many of our poorest communities suffer from very real problems of slum housing, lack of basic services and infrastructure and were understandably angry at the slow pace at which many municipal councils were responding to their complaints.
Opposition parties and ‘independents' tried desperately to exploit this anger, but could offer no real alternative and were overwhelmingly rejected by most voters. It is a measure of the standing of the ANC that even in these poorest of the poor communities, the majority stayed loyal to their ANC.
The new councillors must now repay that loyalty by immediately implementing their promises to these communities to provide the services they need. There must be no more ‘open toilets' scandals, no more failing to spend money in the budgets, and above all no more corruption and waste of public resources by councillors who abuse their position to line their own pockets instead of serving the people who voted them into office.
The federation is fully behind its affiliate, SAMWU, in its courageous battle to expose corruption and bring the offenders to justice. We will insist that in return for the union's decision to suspend its planned industrial action until after the elections, the ANC leadership must honour its commitment to take up the issues raised by SAMWU, particularly the reinstatement of whistle-blowers, immediately after the elections.
COSATU also looks forward to the investigations the ANC has promised into allegations of abuse of the candidate selection process and will support the removal of councillors found to have been appointed as candidates without the consent of their branch and/or their community.
The federation sends its commiserations to the people of Cape Town, Midvaal and other communities who, despite the dynamic campaign by the ANC, have to suffer the prospect of five more years of neglect and mismanagement by the Democratic Alliance.
We congratulate our Comrade Tony Ehrenreich, and the Cape Town ANC members, for the magnificent fight they led in Cape Town to turn the tide. Tony will be a formidable leader of the opposition and will lay the foundations for an ANC victory in the next round of elections.
COSATU and its allies must now prepare for the federation's Central Committee on 27-30 June and then the momentous year of 2012, the ANC's centenary, in which the SACP, COSATU and the ANC all hold their policy-making and elective congresses and conferences.
There will never be a better time to get our revolutionary movement on the right path, recommit it to the goals of the Freedom Charter and forge ahead with the struggle to transform the lives of all the people of South Africa.
Finally COSATU repeats its demand for future election days to be made non-trading public holidays. The federation received numerous reports on 18 May of workers being forced to work all day, in some shops for example, from 7 am to 7 pm, which made voting impossible. No-one must be denied their democratic right to vote!
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, May 20 2011
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