As South Africans marked May Day in the autumn sunshine, it became clear that tensions between the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its allies in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had increased.
In a statement yesterday, Cosatu spokesman, Mr Siphiwe Mgcina, announced that his organisation would stage a two-day national strike to protest against the government's privatisation policy.
Its general secretary, Mr Zwelinzima Vavi, warned that his organisation's long-standing alliance with the ANC was in danger of succumbing to a "natural death".
Speaking to the national congress of the 240,000-strong National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union, Mr Vavi referred to the serious nature of "recent developments in the ANC".
For the past week South African politics have been in turmoil following accusations that three leading politicians, including Northern Ireland arms inspector Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, were under police investigation for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Thabo Mbeki.
"Against this background the developments within the ANC must be taken in a serious light. In our intervention, we need to defend internal democracy within the movement, defend the movement from those who want to derail it from its mission of transformation, and build a stronger organisation.
"The greatest risk confronting the South African revolution is a situation where the revolution devours its children with comrade fighting comrade, feeding into paranoia and hysteria, lack of trust and suspicion of each other's motives. Under these circumstances it becomes extremely difficult to work together as a revolutionary movement," Mr Vavi said.
Cosatu has also taken a contrasting view of the AIDS situation in South Africa from that of President Mbeki who has expressed the belief that HIV may not lead to full-blown AIDS. Almost five million South Africans are HIV positive.
The threat of a national strike looms as the ANC-led government prepared further privatisations in a bid to win badly-needed inward investment. Cosatu has claimed that up to a million people have lost their jobs since privatisation began in 1997 and that further privatisation would lead to great job losses.
"It is a threat to our jobs, to quality service to the poor and to the ability of the state to play a developmental role," Mr Mgcina said. The decision to strike was already taken, he said, but the action was unlikely to take place before next weekend.
In a separate development, the wife of one of the men convicted of the murder of South African Communist Party leader, Mr Chris Hani in 1993 said rumours of Mr Mbeki's involvement in the murder were "nonsense".
According to Safety and Security Minister Mr Steve Tshwete, part of the plot involving Mr Ramaphosa and two former regional premiers, Mr Tokyo Sexwale and Mr Matthews Phosa, was the allegation that Mr Mbeki was involved.
Ms Gaye Derby-Lewis, wife of Mr Clive Derby-Lewis who with Polish immigrant Mr Janusz Walus was found guilty of the murder, said the allegations were an attempt to cast doubt on the evidence of her husband and Mr Walus before they appealed a decision to refuse them an amnesty.
