The Times *'Cosatu must cool it'* /Mantashe spells out role for unions/ *Dominic Mahlangu, The Times, Johannesburg, 30 September 2010*ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has called on trade union federation Cosatu to focus on grooming future national leaders instead of constantly arguing about the "strategic political centre" of the tripartite alliance.
Mantashe yesterday told delegates to the elective conference of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union, in Boksburg, on the East Rand, that trade unions were the best schools for developing "revolutionary leaders".
He said a number of ministers in President Jacob Zuma's administration were products of Cosatu.
"It is a contradiction to say that the ANC leads a revolutionary alliance, but the alliance led by the ANC is not a strategic political centre [centre of political power]," Mantashe said.
He said trade unions should consider how they could strengthen their influence in the ANC. He said their failure to do so could lead to other social classes steering the ruling party away from the Left.
"Trade unions are the best schools for developing future leaders. They are schools for revolution," he said.
Mantashe told the conference that unions should be prepared to release for other duties the leaders that they produced.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Tuesday told the conference that the ANC's failure to affirm that its alliance with Cosatu and the SA Communist Party was South Africa's strategic political centre has resulted in the members of the federation feeling that they were being used merely to garner votes for the ruling party.
He said the union would continue to ask the ANC for answers.*From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article682744.ece/Cosatu-must-cool-it*
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