The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says a coalition government between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) will not be beneficial to the workers.
For the first time in 30 years, the ANC has failed to obtain majority votes to form a new government.
Political parties are still engaging in talks even in some provinces where there is no outright winner.
The ANC’s votes have fallen to just over 40% nationally, with voter turnout at just 58.61%.
Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks says the DA supports anti-worker policies.
“Our concern with the DA is that the DA’s election manifesto speaks about scrapping labour laws, and you have the history of the DA since 1994 working against the labour laws. It would be impossible for us to agree to scrapping the labour laws or any workers’ rights. We are also concerned about the stability of a coalition government and what impact that would have on the ANC transformation mandate.”
PODCAST | Cosatu rejects an ANC-DA coalition:
Meanwhile, business leaders have urged political parties to accept the 2024 election results and work towards forming a stable coalition that puts the country first.
The CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), Busisiwe Mavuso, says this is a very difficult time for the country.
“We don’t want to see a chaotic coalition, we don’t want to see strained and ineffective decision making, we don’t want to see disunity within the coalition, we don’t want to see a coalition that is going to bring in a failure to implement even the most basic of services. I mean, think about the City of Joburg – eight mayors in two years. It has been absolutely chaotic. Coalitions can work. You just have to make sure that you get partners that will be of the single-minded focus. You need to make sure that the coalition is willing to compromise in favour of the greater good.”
VIDEO | Analysing a DA-ANC coalition:
