Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA's (Numsa) withdrawal of funding will not affect the SA Communist Party, it said on Sunday.
"The SACP has not received funding from the political fund for the past three years," said spokesperson Alex Mashilo.
"The decision by Numsa's leaders to withdraw [its] contribution to the political fund will therefore have no impact over the SACP," he said.
Numsa resolved at a special national congress in Boksburg, on the East Rand, on Friday, to withdraw its contribution to the Congress of SA Trade Unions' (Cosatu) political fund.
It also said it would not endorse or support the African National Congress or any other political party in the 2014 general election.
Mashilo said the fund had not been set up only for the SACP, but also the ANC, the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi), the Congress of SA Students and the SA Students' Congress.
He said the SACP's focus was to continue to work with Cosatu, to defend it, and to build its strength and unity.
"We are interested in a strong, independent and militant Cosatu that is part of the revolutionary alliance, but neither the conveyor belt of the party [ANC] nor any of its allied partners." Mashilo said.
"Matters of funding are a subject of bilateral engagements with our ally Cosatu."
The SACP is part of an alliance with the ANC and Cosatu.
Numsa, which is affiliated to Cosatu, has called on Cosatu to break away from the alliance.
The SACP occupies the third floor of Cosatu's headquarters in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Mashilo said this was a long-standing arrangement between Cosatu and the SACP.
"We are paying rent, but there is an arrangement on how it is done."
