Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi urged the South African Communist Party (SACP) to "jealously guard its independence" in an address to its second special congress on Friday.

"The leadership must be held accountable. The state is a massive monster. Our leaders can either lead the process of its transformation or they can be transformed by the state that still is essentially capitalist in character and therefore a weapon of class rule," Vavi said.

The SACP would discuss the inclusion of its leaders into the Cabinet at the congress with its general secretary Blade Nzimande appointed Minister of Higher Education and its deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin as Deputy Minister of Transport.

"We more than ever before are presented with an opportunity to deploy our leaders to key levers of power so that they can be in the forefront of the transformation project.

"We cannot abstain from this challenge, nor can we afford to sub contract it to others," Vavi said.

He told delegates to keep in mind, during their discussions, that the SACP must not be subordinated to the African National Congress (ANC).

"We need carefully thought-out mechanisms to ensure that the SACP has leaders who spend adequate time in party building programmes. The challenges I have mapped above demand a strong, independent and fighting working class party, of course allied to the ANC and Cosatu," he said.

He told delegates to act "ideologically and politically and not to be seen to be acting opportunistically".

Vavi said the space opened must be occupied to maximize the gains to "deepen the national democratic revolution and build momentum for socialism.

"Honestly, it will be a lost opportunity if all it achieves is the incorporation of the party leadership into an untransformed situation without a clear ideology of how this links to our struggle to build socialism.

"In that case the leaders will simply serve as apologists of the status quo. In the past 15 years we have seen this happening," he said.

He told delegates that the ruling alliance has witnessed the beginning of the "unravelling of the unity of the forces that made Polokwane happen".

"Comrades, we confront the challenge to understand the underlying reasons for this apparent rupture and it's ideological, national and class character," Vavi said.

The alliance comprises the ANC, the SACP, Cosatu and the South African National Civics Organisation.

"Unity of the movement is a sacred objective that we should spare no energy to preserve and nurture.
"However, it is not unity for its own sake but to unite a broad range of forces to attain the goals of our struggle for fundamental change," he said.

Vavi said "nobody said it would be easy" and it would be "folly to abandon the ANC when we are confronted by contradictions".

"We persevered during the most difficult time in the post 1994 era. Why should we give up now?

"Leaving the ANC because we are upset by some problematic pronouncements from a minority is a betrayal of these masses that voted for fundamental transformation of society," he said.

He added that it was "false" to argue that common ground could not be established with "many of these comrades" since there were no "principled disagreements" about the organisations' goals.

"Our responsibility is to broaden the front of the forces who want genuine change whilst recognising that there is a tiny minority that only mouth empty rhetoric about change but whose agenda is to use the movement and positions for narrow accumulation and personal wealth," he said.

Vavi urged delegates at the congress to defend post-Polokwane gains and ensure their realisation.

Relations between partners in the ruling alliance were restored after former ANC president Thabo Mbeki was ousted at the party's 52nd National Conference in 2007. He was replaced with current President Jacob Zuma, whose backing from the alliance partners helped secure his victory.

Recently the alliance partners have clashed on issues including the new administration's National Planning Commission, the purchase of flashy cars for Cabinet members and the unionisation of the military.