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COSATU President Zingiswa Losi: Opening Remarks – SACTU 70th Anniversary, 04 March 2025

  • Programme Director, comrade Presidents Nelson Mokgotho and Dr. Snuki Zikalala,
  • Former DP Kgalema Motlante
  • Esteemed leadership of SACTU, COSATU, former and current, the ANC and the Veterans League, SACP and broader movement,

There are too many distinguished veterans of the liberation movement to acknowledge so allow us to simply say all protocol observed,

We are humbled to be here today with so many of the giants of our struggle, in particular the trade union movement.  Ours is not to lecture you about the proud history of SACTU, in fact we are keen to hear from your wells of wisdom.

As the Federation of Chris Dlamini and Emma Mashinini, we are here to report back to yourselves on how your federation has fared, our successes and our challenges. We must commend our veterans for spearheading and working closely with COSATU to ensure that we honour SACTU today, to reflect on the generations that came before us and most importantly to draw from their experiences.

We look forward to continuing to work with the Veterans League as we build COSATU and unite the working class to wage many campaigns to deliver a better life for all. It is not easy to lead such a large organisation as COSATU, we trust that our veterans will not object when we call upon them time and again to share their insights as we navigate these very complex and difficult domestic and international challenges.

1955 also marks the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the Non-Aligned Movement and the World Federation of Trade Unions; clearly it was a very revolutionary year!

As the current generation entrusted to lead your Federation, the product and successor to SACTU, we can report that as a result of decades of struggle, many of the progressive demands of the Freedom Charter have been won as a result of 1994 democratic breakthrough led by the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party and COSATU.

The Constitution enshrines the right to form trade unions and collective bargaining.  

Today our labour laws prohibit unfair discrimination and guarantee the right to equal pay for equal work and provide unemployment and workplace injury and diseases insurance as well as paid maternity and parental leave.

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets minimum and maximum working hours, overtime and paid leave. In 2019 the National Minimum Wage came into effect raising the wages of more than 6 million workers, including the most vulnerable. Child labour and the most brutal forms of exploitation are now criminal offences.

These are the products of the struggles of Ray Alexander, John Nkadimeng and countless others. They are the fruits of battles waged including the 1953 potato boycott and the 1973 Durban strikes.

Whilst we celebrate these and many other hard won victories, including the R65 billion released from the UIF to help 5.7 million workers during COVID-19, the Two Pot Pension Reforms injecting R44 billion into 2.2 million highly indebted workers’ pockets whilst…simultaneously boosting long term savings, the passing of the National Health Insurance Act laying a pathway for universal health care and tackling corruption in workers’ pension funds; we cannot be complacent when so many challenges remain.

4 out of 10 South Africans and 7 out of 10 young people cannot find work.  We remain the world’s most unequal society with entrenched levels of poverty, crime and corruption. 

Whilst government led by the ANC has done well since 1994 to shift 61% of the Budget to invest in working class communities, much is still to be done. We cannot be proud when our own comrades participated in and even facilitated state capture and corruption that continues to deny the poor the relief they need and the stimulus the economy requires.

We must do more to rebuild the state and enable it to provide the public services working class communities depend upon, to stimulate and unlock economic growth, to tackle unemployment and create decent work.

The Freedom Charter eloquently captured a vision for a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa that belongs to all who live in it.  SACTU embodied that spirit.  COSATU values that legacy.  But we must be honest and admit that we have not sufficiently nurtured that vision.  The hate speech rampant on social media as well as the deep scars of spatial apartheid geography provide a mirror to how far we must still travel.

Similarly, we are pained by the traumatic levels of gender-based and other violence that millions of women, girls, the elderly and persons with disabilities are subjected to on a daily basis.

The generations of SACTU were marked by a call to unite the working class and heed the call of our founding President, Elijah Barayi, for one industry, one union, one country, one federation.  We have come far but have also experienced painful setbacks.  We would want to count upon the guidance of our veterans here as we seek to make this call to unite the trade union movement a lived reality.

Equally we will need your support to ensure the Alliance, and its components are renewed, cleansed and reconfigured.  Their mission remains as relevant as ever and can only be fulfilled if we are united and on the ground.

Programme Directors, allow me to conclude by thanking all of you for making time today but this must not be a once-off occasion but rather another step forward in our collective journey.

Thank you.  Amandla!