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A paradox of victory: COSATU and the democratic transformation in South Africa

Where is South Africa heading? ‘Black Economic Empowerment’, corruption in high quarters, world-market adjustment, and neo-liberal economic policies have reduced the international appeal of the African National Congress (ANC-)led regime in the post-apartheid period. Some of those who have remained committed to the South African experience have pointed to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the trade union allies of the ANC, as a redeeming feature. Did they not play an historical role, for instance, in offering leadership to the anti-Mbeki forces at Polokwane, the ANC national conference in 2006? (See, for instance, Southall and Webster 2010.) Does not COSATU’s presence suggest that the direction of South Africa’s politics continues to be contested? By focusing on the erosion of the democratic traditions within the unions after apartheid the author of this important book raises serious questions about such a reading of the South African experience. It is a major contribution. While concluding that COSATU remains ‘extremely powerful and influential’ (p. 177) it points to the significant organisational weaknesses that afflict the federation and its affiliates, and in particular, the lack of workers’ control. Parts of the critique have been voiced by others, for instance, by scholars associated with the Centre for Civil Society in Durban (See Ballard et al. 2006). Buhlungu’s book, however, carries special authority because it speaks not only from a massive amount of research, primarily within SWOP, the Sociology of Works Programme at Witwatersrand University, but also from a history of trade union activism, including with the Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union (PPWAWU), a COSATU affiliate. The study underscores the decisive contribution of COSATU and the unions in general to liberation, elaborating for instance the non-hierarchical egalitarianism that characterised the fight against apartheid. The problem begins in the 1990s with the coming to power of the ANC. At one level COSATU continues to be spectacularly successful, ensuring the introduction of advanced labour legislation and social policies that seek to rectify the extreme racial injustices of the apartheid era. It establishes institutions which are supposed to ensure trade union influence on the exercise of government power, including NEDLAC, the National Development and Labour Council. Above all, COSATU is assured high-level influence through the ‘Tripartite Alliance’ with the ANC and the SACP, the South African Communist Party, and an active part in ANC election campaigns, for instance, the 2011 local government elections. Yet, while gaining in political influence COSATU is simultaneously losing ‘organisational power’. This is the ‘paradox’ which is highlighted in the title of the book. Why is this so? During the struggle against apartheid, the author