The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the North-West province held a bilateral meeting on Thursday, 10 September 2026. The bilateral meeting was attended by the Provincial Office Bearers of COSATU and the 10th Provincial Congress Officials of the SACP. The bilateral meeting was convened to discuss key challenges concerning workers and the working-class in the province, developments within the alliance in the province and a joint political programme.
Campaigns in defense of the working class
The COSATU and SACP bilateral meeting discussed the challenges that face workers in many of our economic sectors in the province including but not limited to issues affecting workers’ rights at Impala Platinum and Bakubung Platinum where the NUM is organising, issues affecting workers in NTI and former Atamelang Bus Service employees, issues affecting workers in Pick n Pay. The meeting agreed that these issues are perpetuated by imperialism against the working class and that the response to these challenges should be that of the class instead of individual unions.
Developments within the Alliance in the Province
The bilateral meeting noted and discussed the developments within the alliance in the province and agreed that these developments need the attention of the alliance partners to engage on and find solutions. This calls for an alliance secretariat to coordinate an alliance political council which will look at the state of the alliance in the province and how to strengthen the alliance and its components within the province.
Joint political programme of the Left Axis of COSATU-SACP
The meeting appreciated the timing at which the bilateral meeting was taking place with the 15th national congress COSATU coming up in the following week and agreed that first, the COSATU national congress is not and should not be reduced to a matter of a child caught in between a fight of parents as this congress is primarily about workers and working-class issues.
Secondly, the bilateral meeting agreed that the two formations have a shared stance of the left axis component of our Alliance which is characterised by building, deepening, and widening the unity of organised workers and the working class in general. We agreed on an immediate, medium- and long-term joint programme whose immediate tasks include waging a struggle against retrenchments in the private and public sectors and advancing common programme against the neoliberal agenda.
The COSATU POBs also received a contextual clarification of the Party’ posture towards the upcoming local government elections. The meeting further agreed to respect the COSATU 8th Central Committee decisions which, reaffirmed the centrality of the Alliance, directed its affiliates to go back and consult and the fact that the 15th national congress would take a decision that is biased to the unity of the Federation and the advancement of workers’ struggles.
Conclusion
This bilateral meeting of COSATU and the SACP in the North-West province is the turning point of a new chapter in our province as we agree on the centrality of an active joint programme to defend the rights and gains of workers, fight retrenchments which serve to deepen the crisis of unemployment, poverty, hunger and exploitation by multinational corporations in collaboration with agents of neoliberalism.
For more information, please contact the COSATU North-West Provincial Secretary, Cde Kabelo Kgoro on 067 410 4696 or the SACP Moses Kotane Provincial Secretary, Cde Smuts Matshe on 083 282 0666.