All tripartite alliance partners were treated equally and have the right to raise issues, African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

"What we have not agreed [on], which we think is an old debate, is whether the alliance is the strategic centre of power or the ANC is the strategic centre of power," he told reporters in Johannesburg.

Mantashe was reacting to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) call for the alliance to be reconfigured and for all partners, which included the SACP, be given equal decision making power.

"We want an alliance that will collectively develop policy in line with our vision as located in the Freedom Charter. We want an alliance which will collectively monitor the implementation of policy and decides on deployment and which can also call ministers to account," Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali told reporters earlier on Monday.

This was not the first time Cosatu has made such a call.

Mantashe said the ANC had a deployment committee which had representatives from Cosatu and SACP sitting on it.

The ANC was also consistent when getting ministers to come and account.

Mantashe said the weekend's national executive committee had received four reports from deployees accounting to the ruling party.

"I don't know if Cosatu does the same. It's up to that individual [organisation] to invite a minister or deployee to come and make representations to their structures," he said.

Mantashe said he hoped Cosatu would table its concerns at the next alliance meeting where they could be discussed face-to-face.

News24.com