COSATU president S'dumo Dlamini says the labour federation is happy with the current ANC leaderhip and will not support any call to try and change it.

"They are leading us well. So we get worried when we hear of the emergence of certain voices somewhere that seek to depose the current leadership," Dlamini said.

"We will defend these leaders no matter whether they get attacked from inside or from outside", he told delegates at the national general council of South African Democratic Teachers Union in Ekurhuleni.

Dlamini said the ANC under President Jacob Zuma presented Cosatu and the SACP with opportunities "to exploit the confusion brought about by the economic recession to push for socialist bias in government programmes".

His utterances come amid reports that some ANC members are pushing for former ANC Youth League president and Deputy Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula to replace Gwede Mantashe as the ruling party's general secretary.

The league has denied that it favoured Mbalula but confirmed that it was impressed by his work as ANC chief of campaigns in the run-up to the elections and his performance as a deputy minister.