COSATU National Congress | “The ANC leads the alliance,” says Mantashe after walkout

How an Explosive Walkout and Unfiltered Press Confrontation Exposed the Violent Collapse of a Historic Political Alliance

An explosive media confrontation erupted outside the convention hall as high-ranking political leader Gwede Mantashe addressed journalists immediately following a dramatic walkout from a national labor conference.

Facing a barrage of aggressive questions from reporters, Gwede Mantashe stood firm, adamantly refusing to back down from his controversial decision to walk away from the podium.

“You don’t distort their lives for convenience”, declared Gwede Mantashe, adding, “You never distort their life for convenience”.

Gwede Mantashe insisted that maintaining core values takes precedence over political maneuvering, stating, “You do the right thing whether it is painful or not”.

“You don’t change it as you like”, asserted Gwede Mantashe, before emphasizing his personal code, “And one of them that I will never do is to give up a principle for convenience”.

Refusing to accept personal compromises, Gwede Mantashe stated, “I don’t do that as a person”.

When reporters confronted Gwede Mantashe over accusations of being arrogant and demands from delegates that his own political party sanction him, the veteran leader delivered a sharp distinction between weakness and humility.

“Can I tell you when you are a band and you are a statue that is called arrogance when you’re not a band it is called plants and humility are not one the same”, argued Gwede Mantashe.

“I cannot be plant I will be humble but very assertive and and therefore plants and humility are not the same”, explained Gwede Mantashe, declaring, “I’m not pl I’m humble”.

Journalists pressed Gwede Mantashe on whether he felt disrespected by the conference organizers during the dramatic floor standoff.

“No, no, no, no”, replied Gwede Mantashe, rejecting the suggestion that he felt personally insulted.

Gwede Mantashe targeted the younger generation of union members, claiming they acted out of sheer convenience without understanding historical roots.

“I would appreciate that young workers took a decision out of convenience”, stated Gwede Mantashe.

“They have no history of their lives”, asserted Gwede Mantashe, adding, “They have no history of the federation itself and therefore they distort it in their conference”.

Warning against allowing unchecked behavior, Gwede Mantashe noted, “then you allow them to do that they will grow their conference reaction”.

When challenged on the alliance’s “big brother syndrome” and claims that the African National Congress historically spoke before other partners, Gwede Mantashe vehemently denied the accusations.

“No, we never spoke before the party, we always speak last, that is tradition”, declared Gwede Mantashe.

“Anybody who say we ever spoke first is telling lies conveniently”, asserted Gwede Mantashe, adding, “there’s no truth in that”.

Reaffirming the structural hierarchy of the ruling bloc, Gwede Mantashe insisted, “we always speak last because that is the order of the alliance”.

Addressing the accusations directly, Gwede Mantashe proclaimed, “I go big brother syndrome, we are the leader of the alliance”.

“Until that is changed, if it is not changed, we are the leader of the alliance”, declared Gwede Mantashe.

With critical national elections looming in less than twenty-five days, journalists questioned Gwede Mantashe on what message this public rift sends to the voting public.

“I’m not sending any message to the voters”, stated Gwede Mantashe, explaining, “I do door to door every day, so I talk to voters personally”.

Refusing to yield power for electoral gain, Gwede Mantashe asserted, “But what I will never do is to give up my rightful status for convenience because there are elections, I will not do that”.

When reporters pressed Gwede Mantashe on whether the party fears losing power at the ballot box, the leader delivered a blunt assessment of democratic realities.

“Now, losing power is not a choice of the ANC, it’s a decision of the voters”, stated Gwede Mantashe.

“We have to talk to the voters, that’s why we campaign every day”, explained Gwede Mantashe, adding, “So we don’t campaign in the Congress, we campaign in the streets”.

Journalists directly challenged Gwede Mantashe, pointing out that his dramatic walkout cost the party crucial union votes and angered delegates who claimed the African National Congress would feel the pain soon enough.

“No, now that is not undermining, it’s a historic standing of the alliance”, countered Gwede Mantashe, reiterating, “Historic standing of the alliance, you don’t change that for convenience, you never do that”.

Gwede Mantashe delivered a scathing moral warning, stating, “If you give up principles for convenience, you are less than a human being”.

Dismissing fears that union delegates would punish the party at the polls, Gwede Mantashe noted, “No, no, they will not punish me, everyone here has one vote and every other citizen has a vote, therefore vote will depend on what the ANC does”.

Addressing the underlying political shifts within the labor federation, Gwede Mantashe pointed to the ideological influence of specific unions altering the balance of forces.

“At one point I did make the point that if you allow the intelligent to dominate the federation the federation becomes yellow”, explained Gwede Mantashe.

“If you want a red federation the proletariat dominates and therefore blue collar workers people who produce units of production become the dominant part”, stated Gwede Mantashe, pointing out, “You can see the shift in the federation with the expansion of numsa and the weakum, you see the shift of the balance of forces in the decent taken here”.

When asked about broader disunity within the tripartite alliance and ideological conflicts with the South African Communist Party over socialism and capitalism, Gwede Mantashe drew a firm line between political reality and opportunism.

“Can I tell you opportunism and politics are two different things all the time”, stated Gwede Mantashe.

“We always stated that we’re not a socialist movement, we’re neither socialist nor capitalists and that remains the outlook of the African National Congress”, explained Gwede Mantashe.

“It is not going to be socialist because it is in a consult conference”, asserted Gwede Mantashe, adding, “If you do that, you are misleading society, you are not being truthful to yourself, you are lying, you are actually saying things to to for convenience”.

Pressed to define the exact current status of the historic alliance, Gwede Mantashe dropped a chilling, definitive exposure.

“At this point in time, we are contesting each other with the SACP”, revealed Gwede Mantashe, confirming, “That is the state of the alliance”.

When the journalist summarized the situation as every man for himself, Gwede Mantashe delivered a final, jaw-dropping declaration.

“So every man for himself basically”, stated the reporter, to which Gwede Mantashe chillingly replied, “And God and God for us all”.

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