President Jacob Zuma says the relationship between the ANC and workers, is significant.
Zuma was speaking at the national political commission of the metal workers union Numsa, where he received a rousing welcome.
He told delegates that he was a worker above anything else and that he owed everything to the unions.
Zuma also took on the ANC Youth League, saying it was not a spare-wheel of the ANC.
"It is an integral part of the ANC and that's why for it's discipline, it's constitution must be formed by the ANC constitution and must be subordinate to the ANC's constitution and therefore it's activities must be subordinated with ANC activities" Zuma said.
Meanwhile, Numsa secretary-general, Irvin Jim, called on the ANC to makes rapid progress in transforming the economy and society to benefit the majority of South Africans.
Delivering his opening address to the commission, Jim outlined Numsa's goals in this regard.
"Numsa will continue to champion among others the following.....all the people of South Africa must share in the wealth of the country by the way of socialisation and democratisation of ownership and control of the economy is inevitable post 1994. The basic word of the country must be transferred into the hands of the people as a whole, as a precondition for attaining democracy and peace in South Africa". Jim said.
