The working class will be the biggest losers of coalition governments because they are based on resentment towards the African National Congress (ANC) and the settling of political and personal scores, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday.

This comes after opposition parties, led by the Democratic Alliance (DA), on Wednesday ganged up against the ruling party and signed an agreement to form coalition governments in hung metros and small municipalities, with others pledging their support and votes to the DA.

In a statement, Cosatu’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said these coalitions were not based on rational political behaviour, commitment to service delivery or policy principles, saying they were anti-ANC.

“Cosatu has noted the formation of an anti-ANC alliance by opposition parties that was sealed by the signing of coalition agreements in some of the hung metropolitan municipalities,” Pamla said.

“The federation is not at all surprised by these latest developments but is concerned that the working class will be the biggest losers in all of this.”

Pamla said most of these parties were using this process for their narrow political interests, criticising the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for pledging their support to the DA instead of the ANC.

He said the EFF’s “capitulation” had justified the accusation that they were using the left rhetoric to deceive and confuse the desperate and unsuspecting members of the public.

“Cosatu rejects the EFF’s flimsy attempts to camouflage their ideological surrender as some sort of principled prudence based on sound tactical and political calculations,” Pamla said.

“The reality is that theirs is a coalition with a racist party of bosses. Their endorsement and support of the DA, amounts to an endorsement of economic corporatism that the DA represents.”

Pamla said the DA and EFF was an “unholy alliance” which Cosatu would ensure was kept accountable.

“Cosatu wants to warn the DA and its newly acquired friends and sympathisers that they will receive firm resistance from the workers if they attempt to reverse transformation and victimise workers,” Pamla said.

“We will not allow them to privatise local government and hand it over to their elite funders.”