Mantashe ‘took a hit for ANC’ after Ramaphosa was advised against attending Cosatu congress

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ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe is alleged to have been the only ANC official willing to take a hit for the party during the first day of trade union federation Cosatu’s congress. 

Mantashe was booed and forced to abandon delivering a message of support from the ANC on the first day of the congress at Gallagher Convention Centre on Monday. 

Two ANC insiders who spoke to Mail & Guardian said the decision for Mantashe to address the conference instead of president Cyril Ramaphosa was made on Sunday night by party officials. 

Traditionally, the role of delivering the message of support from the tripartite alliance during a Cosatu congress is the purview of the ANC president. 

The Cosatu programme reflected this as Ramaphosa was expected to attend. 

However, on Monday morning, the programme was abruptly changed to include Mantashe as the speaker from the ANC. Mantashe was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the commemoration of late struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s birthday in Orlando West, Soweto, as reflected on the ANC’s programme of 23 September. 

At 12.15 pm on Monday, the ANC sent out a media advisory that Ramaphosa would deliver the Madikizela-Mandela keynote address instead. 

The two insiders told M&G that the ANC officials were reluctant to send the party  president. They said that there were indications over the weekend that he would be “embarrassed”. This was due to anger from workers about the deadlock over the public sector wage bill, among other issues. 

“There is this notion that if you send Gwede he will manage the situation. The officials were relying on that but it backfired. The officials knew that he would be jeered, it was not about him. The anger of the workers was directed towards the ANC,” one insider said. 

The second party leader said that Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) was also aware that workers would not react well to the ANC’s attendance. 

They added that some members of the CEC and the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) members who attended the first day of the congress advised Mantashe to leave shortly after he was booed off the stage, but he was adamant that he had to deliver the ANC’s message of support, as per custom. 

The decision was then taken for the congress to adjourn until Tuesday for the ANC and SACP to deliver their messages of support. 

Mantashe, with known ties to the trade union having founded NUM, is expected to make another attempt at addressing delegates. 

This is the first time an ANC leader has been booed and forced to abandon a planned address at a Cosatu congress.

Cosatu first deputy president Mike Shingange was one of the trade federation’s leaders who made attempts to calm delegates as they jeered Mantashe. 

He told M&G Cosatu expected that whoever would address workers from the ANC would be treated in the same fashion. 

“That we are still battling to get the delegates to settle down so that the ANC must still be allowed to speak is something we are working on as the leadership of the union. It was bound to happen that those who are in power will not come to the workers’ meeting and walk away as if things are normal. We are still hoping that the leadership of the unions are going to prevail on this matter,” he said. 

SACP leader and labour minister Thulas Nxesi said that while the communist party was sympathetic to the workers’ issues, Mantashe or the president should have been allowed to address delegates so that those issues formed part of the debate. 

“[The ANC was] going to raise them. It doesn’t mean that in the alliance we agree on everything. There are many issues that we differ on, there are issues where we agree but it means on issues where we don’t agree, we must engage.”

On Workers Day this year, Ramaphosa was unable to deliver a message of support at the Cosatu event in the North West because he was heckled and booed. His security team had to rush him away.  

Tensions between public sector unions and government are at boiling point as the Ramaphosa-led government has offered a 3% wage increase while unions have demanded 10%. Unions have accused the government of reneging on the 2018 wage agreement. 

This is not the first time Mantashe has allegedly taken a hit for Ramaphosa to avoid the president being “embarrassed”. 

In June, Mantashe put a lid on attempts to steer an NEC meeting towards discussions on the Phala Phala scandal. 

The M&G reported that Mantashe, along with treasurer general Paul Mashatile, took turns defending Ramaphosa. 

Mantashe allegedly told the meeting that the top six were compiling a report that would be referred to the NEC. Zweli Mkhize and Tony Yengeni were said to have been the ones leading the charge for Ramaphosa to account. 

In July, Mantashe is alleged to have offered to attend the KwaZulu-Natal conference after some NEC members raised concerns that Ramaphosa would be heckled. 

Mantashe, alongside finance minister Enoch Godongwane and Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Oscar Mabuyane, however, then convinced Ramaphosa to attend the conference fearing that he would look weak if he did not appear before KZN delegates, who had sung “Wenzeni uZuma” in support of former president Jacob Zuma. 

KwaZulu-Natal is the ANC’s biggest province and Zuma’s home turf where he still enjoys respect and support from ANC branches.