COSATU's Passionate Plea: ANC and SACP Must Heal Rifts as South Africa Braces for 2026 Elections

Mpho Dube
Sep 18
3 min read

COSATU President Zingiswa Losi

In a dramatic call resonating like a thunderclap through the corridors of South Africa's labour movement, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has issued a fervent appeal for reconciliation between the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), as the nation hurtles towards the pivotal 2026 local government elections.

This urgent entreaty unfolds against the combustible backdrop of the SACP's jaw-dropping decision to contest future polls as an independent entity, a bold move catalyzed by the ANC's perceived intransigence on reconfiguring their hallowed alliance – a partnership steeped in over two decades of shared struggle and triumph.

Delivering a speech laced with emotional gravitas at COSATU's Central Committee meeting in Benoni, President Zingiswa Losi summoned the luminous spirits of South Africa's liberation pantheon – Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, and Chris Hani – as she underscored the sacred imperative of unity. "We love the ANC of Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. We love the SACP of Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. We need our alliance partners to resolve their challenges and to engage the federation on these," Losi declared, her words vibrating with historical resonance like the beat of a mighty drum. "This is unity that has taken workers decades to build, and has been severely tested at times. We cannot afford, at this time when the National Democratic Revolution is under such severe strain, nor when workers are under siege on so many fronts, to be divided."

Losi pressed further for deliberate measures to knit the alliance back together, with an eye on reclaiming the commanding 60% vote share the tripartite coalition once wielded with swagger in the late 1990s.

Speaking alongside Losi at the COSATU gathering in Benoni, Johannesburg, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa left no doubt about his party's devotion to preserving the storied alliance. "The ANC remains committed to the strategic alliance that we have. The ANC remains committed to the objectives of the NDR and in the end, we are irrevocably committed to strengthening the alliance," Ramaphosa avowed with conviction. "As president of the ANC, I have always been clear that breaking this alliance or weakening this alliance is not in our best interests. Breaking this alliance or weakening this alliance is not in the best interest of all of us and we need to deal with all the challenges of reconfiguration, how alliance partners are respected."

The tense fault lines between the ANC and SACP – ignited by the SACP's gambit to forge an independent electoral course – found poignant expression as leaders from both parties, joined by COSATU's Zingiswa Losi, professed fealty to alliance unity on the Benoni platform.

SACP leader Solly Mapaila stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ramaphosa and Losi in accentuating this solemn pledge at COSATU's 8th Central Committee meeting – a mid-term introspection dissecting implementation of past congress resolutions against the alloy of alliance strains.

As South Africa teeters on the cusp of this defining political moment ahead of the 2026 local government elections, COSATU's heartfelt summons for cohesion spotlights both the gravitational pull of historical partnerships and the labyrinthine complexities besetting the tripartite nexus of ANC, SACP, and COSATU itself – a constellation pivotal to the country's post-apartheid political edifice.

The denouement of these fraught internal dialogues could well sculpt the contours of South Africa's democratic journey in the epoch ahead, imbuing this moment with profound significance.