No, not really. The ANC will sometimes appoint their leaders to positions, which led to the terrible irony of a SACP official who was the head of education at the time arguing against free university during the fees must fall protests. They may speak out sometimes, but they always cave to the will of the ANC eventually, especially considering the current leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, was a CEO involved in the Marikana massacre of mineworkers.
As I said NUMSA has split from them and has formed their own Marxist Leninist political party, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. Unfortunately it was a massive failure because they have 0 seats in parliament on a national and provincial level (despite me voting for them :-( )
Do the SACP and COSATU have real influence? What’s their approach going forward?
No, not really. The ANC will sometimes appoint their leaders to positions, which led to the terrible irony of a SACP official who was the head of education at the time arguing against free university during the fees must fall protests. They may speak out sometimes, but they always cave to the will of the ANC eventually, especially considering the current leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, was a CEO involved in the Marikana massacre of mineworkers.
So they aligned with the national bourgeoisie for national liberation, and now are stuck playing electoral politics with them.
What about the NUMSA? What’s their approach?
As I said NUMSA has split from them and has formed their own Marxist Leninist political party, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. Unfortunately it was a massive failure because they have 0 seats in parliament on a national and provincial level (despite me voting for them :-( )