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Key Players For and Against Privatization:

COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions)

Willie Madisha, President

The leader of Cosatu, and also president of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) appears extremely interested in ameliorating the alliance between Cosatu and the ANC, but also looks to union restructuring as a means of bolstering membership and financial resources.  The lowered membership numbers are blamed solely on economic downturn and unemployment, with no reference to discontent caused by the willingness of Cosatu to work with ANC though it does not adequately represent their interests.[eh1]  In addition to reform of Cosatu and Sadtu, Madisha looks to a unified labor movement to enforce change in the country[eh2], however, he denies the importance of mass action, saying, "Privatisation cannot be destroyed by a two-day strike... It is trying to kill an elephant with a toy gun".[eh3] 

Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary

Vavi, one of the key players in the struggle between Cosatu and the ANC, stands with Cosatu in its position within the tripartite alliance, claiming that this is the only way there can be lasting change for the poor and unemployed in South Africa.  However, Vavi seems more hesitant about this alliance than Madisha, speaking out against the government’s response to Cosatu’s planned strikes.  He criticized the pro-privatization government for a lack of attention to Cosatu’s stance against privatization after Cosatu aligned with the ANC to garner electoral support based on their platform that had made no mention of privatization.  Vavi recognizes that this alliance, though necessary for change, is not the means through which Cosatu can achieve its goals for employment. 

Picking up a refrain from the government statement, namely whether the anti-privatisation strike was necessary, Vavi said it had become clear that only mass action could compel government to reconsider wholesale privatisation and to enter into meaningful discussion with the labour movement and other stakeholders.[eh4]

ANC (African National Congress)

Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister

Manuel is affiliated to the ANC through his fiscal politics, and committed to working with them, as he was elected primarily appointed primarily through ANC electoral power.[eh5]  The minister’s primary interests lay in neo-liberal reform based in privatization of major companies, primarily electricity, water, communications, and mines.  Manuel has less of an interest in social policies, though he intends for the expected gains from privatization to be geared toward controlling poverty and unemployment.  He disagrees with Cosatu on their interest in addressing HIV/AIDS, particularly whether it should be on the agenda for the upcoming Growth and Development Summit.[eh6]  Manuel is a key actor involved in the government’s Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy, another point of struggle between he and Cosatu.[eh7]

Jeff Radebe, Minister of Public Enterprises

Radebe, known as the “government’s privatisation tzar”, is alternatingly referred to as ANC and SA government, but rarely as a representative of the ANC within the government.  Though known to be a leader of the ANC and holder of official government position, he is not fully recognized as representing the “rank and file” of the party (and especially not the tripartite alliance, in his support for GEAR).  Radebe maintains that he and his government are concerned with economic and social progress for SA, however Cosatu and South Africa Communist Party (SACP) disagree that privatisation will be able to achieve these goals.[eh8]  Recently Radebe was ejected from the SACP central committee that had been charged with organizing the Growth and Development Summit as part of the tripartite alliance.[eh9]  Radebe insists along with the government that moves towards privatization are attempts to redistribute wealth to black South Africans, however Cosatu rebuts that workers do not end up gaining, but instead, paying through unemployment.[eh10]

Membathisi Mdladlana, Minister of Labor

Though Minister of Labor, Mdladlana sides with ANC and privatization in the battle against Cosatu by rejecting Cosatu’s estimates of the success of their strikes, and diminishing their importance.[eh11]  Mdladlana attempts to make amends with workers by claiming that “restructuring state assets involved more than just privatization” and emphasizing the creation of new jobs, but labor (especially Cosatu) stands solidly against the fiscal policies of Mdlandlana’s government.[eh12]  While the workers stand against him, Mdladlana commends the work of Cosatu and SACP members within the Cabinet for enacting the principles of the ANC in “an ANC-led alliance,” thus belittling the work and principles of the two labor centered organizations.[eh13]

South Africa Communist Party

Blade Nzimande, General Secretary

SACP stands primarily against privatization and job losses, however ANC is trying to pull them toward privatization in the ANC’s battle with Cosatu within the tripartite alliance.[eh14]  SACP, being pulled back and forth between two “allied” forces that cannot agree, urges Cosatu and ANC to work together for social and economic change in South Africa, ending arguments and personal attacks, and thus setting aside differences integral to each party.[eh15]  Nzimande has shown frustration at the two parties, as he sees there conflict and accusations of being ultra-left as sidelining more important issues within the alliance, and an attempt to erase SACP from the alliance as an individual entity.[eh16]

Go back to: Tripartite Alliance and Privatization

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