There has been a “misinformation campaign” about what constitutes the real crisis in Cosatu aimed at defocusing it, Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini said on Friday.

“There has been an attempt to steal Cosatu away from its course… by deliberate misinterpretation or selective implementation of its policies to suit an agenda which has not been agreed to at congress through open and democratic processes,” he wrote in an opinion piece.

“Cosatu is expected to break away from the alliance and treat the SACP and the ANC in a manner that places them at the same level as our class enemies which is the white monopoly capital.”

The Congress of SA Trade Unions last week expelled its biggest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, after charging it with contravening the trade union federation’s constitution.

Numsa had resolved at its special national congress held in December to not support the African National Congress during the May general elections. This went against Cosatu’s constitution.

The metalworkers called on Cosatu to break with the tripartite alliance with the ANC and the SA Communist Party, accusing them of not advancing the cause of the working class.

It also accused the ANC of trying to reduce Cosatu to a labour desk within the ruling party.

Dlamini on Friday defended Cosatu saying it always fought inside the ANC to ensure it remained a “revolutionary, mass-based, national liberation movement”.

There had always been an attempt to come between Cosatu and its alliance partners, he charged.

“There has been a consistent attempt to impose rupture between Cosatu and its allies by those who on their own, with their own comrades in some meetings outside of Cosatu structures had come to a conclusion that the alliance was no longer required.

“There is no Cosatu congress or any constitutional meeting which has come to this conclusion,” Dlamini said. SAPA