SAfrica: Writer says ANC lacks power bloc to counter rampant unions congress.

Text of report by influential, privately-owned South African daily Business Day website on 8 June

[Article by Jabulani Sikhakhane in the "Opinion & Analysis" section: "ANC Has No Ballast To Withstand the Cosatu Tsunami"]

THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) tsunami that has battered Luthuli House [ANC headquarters] these past few weeks has exposed a fatal flaw in the African National Congress's (ANC's) edifice, one that could derail SA's development strategy. The defect in the ruling party's structure is that it lacks an alternative political bloc to counterbalance the power of the trade union federation.

Ordinarily, the ANC would use other power blocs within it, such as the middle class, as bulwarks against a rampant Cosatu. …