The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urges its Alliance Partners to desist from any statements and actions that may weaken the Tripartite Alliance.  The Federation has been extremely concerned by recent developments within the Alliance, including the convening of press conferences and the issuing of statements by Alliance Partners about each other.  We fear that such events only serve to weaken and not strengthen or unite the Alliance.

The Federation values the Alliance and the role each Alliance Partner has played in the liberation struggle and post-1994.  This is an Alliance built over decades of struggle and under the most trying of circumstances.  Its unity has been forged in the sacrifices of generations from the building of the nascent trade union movement from the 1910s and beyond, to the convening of the historic Congress of the People at Kliptown in 1955, from the prison cells of Robben Island to the camps of uMkhonto we Sizwe in Angola.  It has been epitomised by the heroic leadership of countless stalwarts, from Walter Sisulu to Joe Slovo, from Chris Hani to Ray Alexander, who were not only leaders of any single Alliance Partner, but in fact the entire liberation movement.

This Alliance not only led the liberation struggle that defeated the apartheid regime but also put in place our internationally respected constitutional democracy and has set South Africa firmly upon the transformation journey necessary to undo three and a half centuries of colonial and apartheid rule whose legacies continue to scar the nation.  With the working class battling a 41.1% unemployment rate, entrenched levels of poverty and inequality, and endemic crime and corruption; the need for the Alliance to continue to provide coherent and decisive leadership for society remains as relevant as ever.

COSATU has been deeply worried by tensions in the Alliance.  If these are not resolved with the necessary political maturity and strategic foresight, we fear they may worsen

and potentially threaten the very survival of the Alliance.  The working class does not find comfort when leaders of the Alliance air their grievances with each other in public, more so when society, in particular the poor, battle to survive the rising cost of living, retrenchments, deteriorating public and municipal services, painful levels of crime, amongst many other dire challenges.

COSATU, the largest federation of trade unions in the nation, shares a membership and a constituency with its Alliance Partners.  If solutions to tensions within the Alliance are not found, we risk the danger of not only dividing the Federation and its membership, but the working class as a whole.  This would be a failure of leadership that the generations of Moses Kotane, Elijah Barayi and Nana Abrahams would not look kindly upon.

The Federation cherishes its relationship with the African National Congress, the leader of the liberation movement and government.  The Federation equally cherishes its relationship with the South African Communist Party, the vanguard of the working class and the cauldron in which so many leaders of the Alliance have been nurtured. 

COSATU’s September 2025 Central Committee mandated the Federation to engage each Alliance Partner to find ways to tackle the challenges the Alliance has faced, including the need to ensure its radical reconfiguration.  The Federation will be seeking the urgent convening of the Alliance Political Council so that these burning matters can be addressed in a manner that strengthens the Alliance, and that ensures it has a united programme of action as we head towards the most contested local government elections since the dawn of democracy.  This is a matter that COSATU will spare no effort or energy to resolve.

Issued by COSATU

Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)

Mobile: 082 785 0687

Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za