SADTU is set to defy Cosatu’s resolution to desert the ANC in the 2024 elections.
The union did not vote on the motion at the federation’s 14th congress last week as it did not have a mandate.
The issue will be put on the table when the union convenes its national general council.
Sadtu spokeswoman, Nomusa Cembi, told Daily Sun the federation’s resolution to support the SACP, which Cembi said was taken at its 2019 congress, does not specifically say whether the affiliate should support the ANC.
“We are not bound by this resolution according to a clause in the constitution of Cosatu because we have already decided on the matter,” said Cembi.
“Our principle is that we should not leave the alliance. We do not have an appetite to join another.”
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Sadtu didn’t vote on the motion which dragged on at the conference for two days. The federation’s leadership attempted to sweep the issue under the carpet after workers booed ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe off stage. Cembi said the union wanted a united alliance but saw the reality of workers being unhappy with the governing party.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the council on Tuesday, 4 October.
This will be another deviation of other affiliates who have vowed that no ANC leader would address them until their promises are met.
The affiliates’ anger comes from the ANC government ignoring a bargaining council agreement on a three-year salary increases.
Cembi said other issues to be discussed at the general council, which is convened every five years, would be the school campaign. Also to be discussed is the process of conceptualising, piloting and implementing the General Education Certificate in the system that will be issued at the end of grade 9.
