In the mid – 2000s, former President Thabo Mbeki launched some very public and critical attacks against civil society and the trade union federation, Congress Of South African Trade Union (COSATU), in particular, for
representing an anti-democratic, ‘ultra-left’ tendency, which was, he warned, contrary to the values of the liberation movement. In recent times, these tensions have resurfaced. The most managed contested relationship was always that of COSATU and the African National Congress (ANC); however Alliance structures have always provided the architecture for mediation or de-escalation of these tensions. With the suspension of former COSATU General
Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi and the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) from the federation, has to led to many observers (including former President Kgalema Motlanthe) to assert that the current COSATU will not find itself coming in to too much conflict with the ruling ANC.

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