Pretoria - ANC alliance partner Cosatu yesterday called on the party to stop infighting and corruption in the government.
This comes as the party’s secretary-general Ace Magashule clashed with elections head Fikile Mbalula.
Cosatu, which played a crucial role in Ramaphosa’s election as ANC president in 2017, repeated its call for him to drop ministers implicated in wrongdoing when he appoints his cabinet.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the party’s dip in electoral support, from 62.15% in 2014 to 57.72% in last week's general elections, was because people were angry that the ANC had failed to implement “important and progressive policies” to tackle unemployment, inequality and poverty, as it had pledged.
“The federation is calling on the ANC leadership to stop the factional infighting and focus on firmly taking the reins of both the organisation and government.
"The ANC needs to show firmness and decisiveness in dealing with ill discipline in the organisation and corruption in government, and reposition the ANC and government to provide political and moral leadership to society,” Pamla said.
“The president needs to do that by appointing a cabinet composed of people who are beyond reproach and do away with the recycling of ministers.
"We cannot continue to tolerate mediocrity and incompetence,” he added.
Factionalism reared its ugly head in the ANC again when Magashule and Mbalula faced off in a war of words.
The drama unfolded after Mbalula said the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa at Nasrec in 2017 had averted a disastrous performance for the ANC in the elections, which could have seen the party dropping to 40% compared with the 57% it managed to achieve.
This was dismissed by Magashule, who asserted that people had voted for the ANC and not an individual.
The ANC's national executive committee (NEC) met yesterday to select candidates for premiers of the eight provinces it will be governing.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a special NEC meeting, Magashule stood his ground on his comments regarding the perception that Ramaphosa had aided the ANC in the elections.