Congratulations ANC!
Cosatu in the Eastern Cape congratulates the ANC for a resounding victory in the 18 May 2011 Local Government Elections. Everywhere in the Eastern Cape, even in the poorest of our communities, the people have once more entrusted their lives in the hands of the African National Congress.
We salute all the youth, women, old people, the unemployed and employed workers, rural and shack dwellers across the Eastern Cape who, despite the massive negative media and DA campaigns against the ANC, once more have proved that the ANC remains the most trusted political organisation among the majority of the workers, the rural populations and urban elites of this country.
17 years after 1994, clearly the ANC has no real opposition apart from the white DA.
Cosatu in the Eastern Cape is aware that the job of lifting our people out of the Apartheid inflicted poverty, mass unemployment and unliveable conditions is not yet done. From rural Lusikisiki in the former Transkei to the shacks in the Nelson Mandela Metro we know that our people are crying out for improvement in their lives.
And they are becoming impatient, as the so called service delivery protests in the Eastern Cape confirm. The ANC and its allies cannot any longer pretend that the current pace of economic and social change in the province is adequate to meet the living aspirations of the majority of the people of this province who are working class, poor and live in the rural areas.
These local government elections were a loud wakeup call for the ANC and its alliance. It is time to sort out the leadership challenges in the ANC across the province. It is time to make the alliance truly work. These elections confirmed that it is only when the entire alliance is activated that we can defeat the enemies of our National Democratic Revolution.
We of Cosatu will thus be closely monitoring, and actively participating, in the processes leading to the ANC, SACP, COSATU branch, local, regional and provincial conferences leading up to the 100 Years Celebrations of the ANC next year.
Cosatu can no longer tolerate lazy and reactionary leaders among its ranks. The alliance in the Eastern Cape must work.
These elections have taught us that South African monopoly white capital and its mouth piece - the DA - are well and alive, and together with their media, they can inflict damage to our march towards a more equal, prosperous and democratic South Africa!
Cosatu in the Eastern Cape will be organising, across the province, structures to monitor performance on service delivery in all our municipalities. We will do this with our allies. We are no longer going to wait for the next elections to learn about poor service delivery and corrupt councillors.
The ANC has retained the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. Cosatu is well aware of the acute ANC leadership crisis in this Metro, the hub of our economy. We will be looking to work together with all our allies to help find solutions to the leadership crisis in the Metro. In the next elections, the ANC must win by a large and comfortable margin, in this Metro.
Buffalo City will soon be a fully-fledged Metro. Cosatu will work together with our allies to ensure that this new Metro quickly consolidates its status and meets the needs of all the people who live in it. We cannot any longer tolerate persistent perceptions of corruption, inefficiency, fraud, laziness and all sorts of negative publicity currently associated with Buffalo City.
The ANC and its allies must confront the massive social and economic challenges the majority of the people of the former Transkei are currently experiencing. We know the size of the social backlogs of the area. We understand its history. We are acutely aware of the massive unemployment and poverty in the area. It is time to confront these challenges. Cosatu stands ready to do its part.
Across the province, thousands of Cosatu members took to the streets, walked through communities, and held public meetings at work places and in all our communities to encourage people to vote for the ANC in defence of the National Democratic Revolution. It is time to translate that vote into action to improve the lives of all the people of our province.
We saw many leading national leaders of our revolutionary formations including our General Secretary Comrade Vavi and the President of the ANC and country Comrade Zuma spend time in our Province campaigning. We are grateful for their revolutionary support.
Cosatu in the Eastern Cape will be requesting its allies for both urgent bilaterals and an Eastern Cape alliance meeting to take stock of where we are at, and how we should approach 2012 and 2014. It is time to go back to the trenches!!
Cosatu noted the overwhelming positive media coverage of the opposition in general and the DA in particular, and the massive negative media coverage of the ANC before, leading up to, during and immediately after the elections. We are not surprised by this phenomenon. We fully understand the untransformed nature and the right wing bent of the South African media.
The media throughout this period openly paraded its vicious anti majoritarian democracy bent. Despite all its efforts and negative predictions about the ANC, however, the majority of the voters confirmed their love, loyalty and support for the ANC.
In the 2012 ANC Policy Conference, we will be advocating for greater accountability, transparency and professionalism in the media in South Africa.
Again, Cosatu congratulates the ANC for its decisive victory against the forces of backwardness in the local government elections!
Statement issued by Mandla Rayi - COSATU Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary, May 20 2011
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