JOHANNESBURG -- The divisions that have time and again
beset South Africa's tripartite alliance -- consisting of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) -- have returned to haunt the union and further threaten its existence.
This time, the rifts are playing themselves out in a devastating public-service strike that pits South Africa's president and head of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, on one side and the leftist allies that propelled him to power within his party and the country on the other. No sooner had Zuma urged workers, who are pressing for an 8.6 percent pay increase instead of the government's offer of 7 percent, to return to work than COSATU went public about its grievances and urged workers to disregard Zuma's order. ...