Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has told the ANC to jack up its act and stop "scoring own goals" as it prepares to fight the local government elections.
He said party stalwart Oliver Tambo must be turning in his grave about the extent of the rot the ANC was tolerating.
Addressing the National Union of Metalworkers' conference in Johannesburg yesterday, the Cosatu leader said if the ANC were not careful the DA would make inroads in its strongholds.
"If we allow people to take our movement in the direction they are taking it, very soon we will have to call someone President Zille," he said referring to the leader of the DA.
Vavi told delegates that Cosatu's election campaign for the ANC was "tremendously weakened".
"We go to these elections not to account [for] the tremendous progress we have made in relation to the [2007] project. We are going to the elections, in fact, with our tails between our legs, with our backs against the wall because 1.17million jobs have disappeared ."
Cosatu could not campaign with a message that the ANC had reduced poverty and corruption as resolved in 2007.
"We are going to report that inequality has become worse ... We are going there to report that, unfortunately, despite us prioritising corruption, in reality corruption is getting out of hand everywhere," Vavi said.
South Africa should avoid the kind of "feeding frenzy" that had gripped countries such as Angola and Kenya, where corruption was allegedly the order of the day.
The social order in such states allowed the first family to feed first, followed by cabinet ministers and provincial leaders, while the poor were left with nothing, Vavi said.
Without naming President Jacob Zuma or cabinet ministers, Vavi raised a warning about South Africa: "If we are not careful and [don't] turn the bus, making it face a different direction, we will find ourselves there [like Angola and Kenya]."
Zuma has been criticised for his close association with the Gupta family, which has employed members of his family.
Of the local government election campaign, Vavi said his eyes had been opened to the extent of the "rot and malaise" in the ANC. He said the party was devouring itself.
