The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) held its final Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting for 2024 from 25 to 27 November.
Since its previous CEC in August, COSATU has marked International Day of Decent Work with a Section 77 National Day of Action, putting a spotlight on retrenchments, entrenched poverty, inequality and rising costs of living. On 30 October, COSATU with progressive civil society organisations marched to Parliament as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presented the Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), to protest against Treasury’s continued neoliberal approach to tackling the many deep socio-economic crises facing the country.
The Federation also hosted the Global South Exchange bringing together participants from trade unions across Africa and the Global South to engage on Climate Change and a Just Transition that prioritises the working class and the poor.
By far the biggest victory COSATU has secured for the working class over this quarter has been the Two-Pot retirement system, which the Federation drove from its first proposal in Parliament in May 2020 to implementation on 1 September. More than R35 billion has been withdrawn from the Two-Pot regime savings component, bringing relief to almost 2 million heavily indebted workers. These numbers will continue to rise as the pension funds continue to disperse payments to workers.
COSATU has tabled to Treasury and Parliament, key proposals for the next round of pension reforms including easing the tax burden on low-income earners, ensuring workers who lose their jobs retain access to all their savings so they can take care of their families, allowing workers to tap into existing savings to provide greater relief, and enabling workers to use their pensions as collateral for study fees as education is an investment in one’s career and earning potential.
An unintended benefit of the Two-Pot Pension Reforms is the exposure of more than 7 700 employers who have been defaulting on pension fund payments. Some workers discovered this harsh reality when applying to withdraw their savings. Key culprits include municipalities, security and cleaning companies. COSATU will be following up on these delinquent defaulters to make sure they comply and bring workers’ contributions up to date, including through partnering with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and Department of Employment and Labour.
The Federation together with the vanguard party of the working-class, the South African Communist Party (SACP), participated in the Chris Hani Institute Working Class Leadership School in September, to formulate a strategic response in the context of the 2024 elections which left the leader of the Alliance, the African National Congress short of an outright majority. We resolved to continue to work together to forge a popular left front to roll back the dominance of neo-liberalism in economic and social policy.
Key tasks include developing campaigns to counter attempts that seek to block the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) and the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act. The CEC resolved to form a Friends of the NHI to mobilise mass popular support and pressure to ensure rolling out the NHI is accelerated, and the goal of universal health project is achieved and not derailed by those opposed to achieving universal healthcare.
The CEC also resolved to push back on any efforts to halt the implementation of clauses 4 and 5 of the BELA Act, which are key to ensuring the doors of learning are opened to all, and to uprooting discrimination in our schools.
COSATU continues to lead critical engagements at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC). The Federation emerged triumphant over business when government agreed to a package of labour law reforms that include increasing severance pay from one week to two weeks for every year of service going forward, enhancing the National Minimum Wage, strengthening the rights of atypical workers including enabling them to join a trade union and engage in collective bargaining, guaranteeing on-call workers a minimum number of shifts, and empowering labour inspectors to help enforce pension fund contribution compliance by employers.
The Federation successfully convinced government to abandon the majority of offensive clauses that would have set workers’ rights back such as removing protections from dismissal for workers aged under 30 years and extending temporary employment contracts. Whilst welcoming these critical achievements, COSATU will continue to engage government and later Parliament, to ensure the remaining areas of disagreement are resolved.
The CEC also resolved to strengthen private sector unions and solidify unity of the working class.
COSATU met with the Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy and Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa and the leadership of the South African Maritime Authority (SAMSA) on 12 November, to raise concerns on behalf of the families of the 11 on duty fishermen who drowned while onboard a Sea Harvest Group fishing vessel in May. The families were aggrieved that the investigation into the deaths of their loved ones was taking long to finalise. SAMSA assured both the Minister and COSATU that the investigation would be released before end of this year. Minister Creecy said preparations to establish a Marine Court of Enquiry into the accident were underway.
Nine years after a rockfall at Lily Mine buried three workers underground, the mine is set to reopen under new ownership. The process of reopening will unfold in phases. The priority will be to recover the bodies of the workers that are trapped underground as well as to prioritise the hiring of unemployed mineworkers. In the first phase, COSATU in collaboration with government will identify nearby villages around the mine; map out existing economic activities to connect to available jobs with the skills required; assess skills needs and support young people through training programmes.
With South Africa taking over the presidency and hosting of the G20 next year, COSATU will continue to push a progressive agenda that will benefit workers and the working class in the Global South and Africa in particular. The G20 includes the strategic labour platform, L20, offering a critical platform to advance demands on pressing issues such as poverty, inequality, sustainable development and Just Transition.
The CEC welcomed momentum to drive meaningful international solidarity with the struggles of oppressed people, starting with COSATU’s participation in the UN Day of International Solidarity with the people of Palestine on 29 November, aligning ourselves with the progressive traditions against apartheid, Zionism, oppression and abuse of human rights. COSATU in Gauteng and Western Cape marked the day with activities in their respective provinces.
The CEC called for the urgent revitalisation of the Eswatini Solidarity campaign, including a joint programme with the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland and other progressive forces, as workers and the people of Eswatini face brutal oppression by the monarchy. COSATU working through the Southern African Trade Union Coordinating Congress and the international labour movement, will continue to support efforts to build a SADC-wide progressive movement to advance democracy, human rights and inclusive development. The CEC is extremely concerned about tensions in Mozambique after the October elections and urges engagements on a peaceful resolution of these.
The start of the CEC coincided with the commencement of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). We commit to intensifying campaigns against the pandemic of GBV, a human rights crisis and a national shame.
While government has made strides in developing legislation to curb the cancer of GBV, including the recently promulgated National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act, meant to oversee government’s GBV strategies and programmes, it is unacceptable that survivors still don’t receive sufficient protection from perpetrators.
An investigation by the Public Protector revealed that due to a lack of resources such as vehicles, police officers are not able to respond to domestic violence callouts timeously, women are often forced to serve interim protection orders on their abusers themselves and courts lag in delivering justice to victims of GBV. COSATU calls on government to capacitate law enforcement and the courts to ensure they have the resources and expertise to tackle GBV effectively.
COSATU will host a Charity Golf Day on 2 December to raise funds for its initiatives so it can continue to defend and advance workers’ hard-won rights. The event also aims to help children from child-headed households to get back to and stay in school by buying school uniforms and shoes, and sanitary products for girls who cannot afford them. We hope this will be the first of many charity golf days.
The Federation will celebrate its 39th anniversary in Mpumalanga on 6 December, at the Adelaide Tambo Multipurpose Centre in Middleburg at 10am, and look back on nearly four decades of defending and advancing workers’ and working-class communities rights and interests. The province will also host COSATU’s main May Day event in 2025.
COSATU is pleased with the many battles it has won, is inspired by the campaigns waged by its Affiliates, and determined to ensure that working class struggles are reinvigorated and victorious in 2025.
Issued by COSATU.
Zanele Sabela (COSATU National Spokesperson)
Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639
Email: zan…@cosatu.org.za