Zikalala booed at Cosatu bash
ANC KZN chairman Sihle Zikalala received a cold reception from workers at the 30th anniversary of Cosatu in Durban.
|||Durban - ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairman Sihle Zikalala received a cold reception from workers when he was booed at the 30th anniversary of Cosatu in Durban at the weekend.
This was after some workers sang anti-Zikalala songs and booed him whenever his name was mentioned at the trade union federation’s celebratory rally held at Curries Fountain.
There were also placards denouncing the leadership aligned to him, and calls for the reconvening of the disputed ANC provincial conference, where Zikalala ousted Premier Senzo Mchunu.
Some of the placards read: “Sihle.Zweli.Baleka.Zandilei#MustFall”, “KZN conference re-run” and “Thanduxolo stop behaving like Inkatha #Phara”.
Thanduxolo Sabelo is the KZN ANC Youth League secretary who is seen by critics as a Zikalala lackey.
On Sunday, ANC provincial spokesman Mdumiseni Ntuli said: “The booing and placards in Cosatu, in our view, reflect the extent Cosatu membership is infiltrated by elements that are not part of the progressive alliance.”
Ntuli said the placards and the booing showed there were elements in Cosatu bent on denouncing the ANC leadership.
The booing happened despite a meeting of alliance secretaries on Friday, on the eve of the Cosatu celebrations, to discuss several issues, including the election campaign, alliance programme of action and the planned Friday march against social ills.
Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said it was unfortunate that there were people who used labour federation anniversary celebrations to fight their political battles.
“Cosatu is not about issues of leadership in the ANC,” Dlamini said.
The booing incident took place days after disgruntled ANC members had threatened to intensify their protest against the new leadership.
The incident was an apparent disapproval of Zikalala, who made a brutal assessment of the alliance at the conference in Pietermaritzburg, to the displeasure of some alliance partners.
He used his secretariat report last month to take a swipe at the SACP and Cosatu for raising concerns about the ANC. “There is absolutely everything wrong with comrades who use both the SACP and Cosatu as their lobby groups for leadership positions in the ANC,” Zikalala said in his report.
Daily News
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