The local government election results should serve as a warning to the African National Congress and its alliance partners to listen, Cosatu said on Friday.

“This was a final warning shot to the movement. We must listen, the people they are saying the movement must rid itself of factionalism and start addressing socio-economic challenges,” Congress of SA Trade Unions president Sdumo Dlamini told reporters in Johannesburg.

The results were disheartening and disappointing for the ANC. Its support fell to below 60% nationwide and it failed to get outright majorities in the major metros of Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Nelson Mandela Bay.

Cosatu warned the ANC against going into any coalitions with the Democratic Alliance. It said the official opposition did not represent what workers needed.

“If the DA and its labour broker friends have their way, millions more workers will be plunged into poverty and despair,” he claimed.

Dlamini said if President Jacob Zuma was blamed for the ruling party’s performance in the elections, it meant he led alone.

“That means there is no top six in the ANC, there is no national executive committee of the ANC, no provincial structures of the ANC, and that is not the case.

“We must work in a manner that when mistakes happen, we take collective responsibility. When things go right, we again celebrate collectively. It can’t be that when things don’t go right, it’s one person.”

Although Cosatu disagreed with sentiments that the results signalled the beginning of the end for the ANC, it however described them as a major setback.