Electoral setback merits deep analysis by S.Africa's ANC: COSATU

The electoral setback merits a deep analysis by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its alliance partners in general, from which important lessons must be learnt, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said on Friday.

"There must be no finger pointing or apportioning of blame to individuals, but all our alliance formations must conduct a frank and honest introspections, on how they contributed to the current elections results," said the national union federation, which is a coalition partner with the ANC.

Another coalition partner is the South African Communist Party (SACP).

The COSATU called for an urgent alliance meeting to develop a shared perspective on the challenges and the way forward.

The federation issued a statement after convening a politico-socio-economic commission meeting to discuss the latest political and socio-economic developments in the country, including the outcomes of the latest local government elections, held on Aug. 3.

In the elections, the ANC lost the administrative capital of Pretoria and the strategic Nelson Mandela Bay to the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), and also failed to get more than 50 percent of the votes in the economic powerhouse of Johannesburg.

Nationwide, support for the ANC dropped from 61.9 percent in 2011 to 53.91 percent this year.

This was the biggest setback since the ANC took power in 1994.

The elections took place in the midst of a stagnant economy with high unemployment, poverty and inequalities. Many of the voters have also been left torn apart and disappointed by the scale of corruption and some of the service delivery failures.

These results are also reflective of the international political trends, where we have seen many left leaning or progressive governments experiencing serious electoral losses, the COSATU said.

The federation said it is not blind to the fact that there is consistent decline in the ANC's share of the votes in many areas, but it denounced an imposed public narrative that seeks to paint a picture that the ANC has lost the local government elections and that the DA has won.

"This is an age old political canard by the media and social commentators to downplay some victories for others and manufacture and magnify some non-existent victories for others."

"The reality is that the DA has not won the municipalities that the ANC has failed to retain but there is a stalemate. We refuse to ignore the millions of South Africans, who voted for the ANC in their numbers, in defence of the revolution," said the COSATU. Endit