Newly elected leadership of the Federation, leadership and delegates of our affiliates,
Leadership of the Alliance, guests, members of the media,
Most importantly members of the Federation of Elijah Barayi and Violet Seboni,
Workers across the nation,
It is an honour and a privilege to address you today as the newly elected President of this mighty Federation.
It is however bittersweet that as we conclude this historic Congress, we learnt of the tragic passing of comrade Mdu Mbongwe, the General Secretary of SACCAWU and a veteran member of the CEC, a much loved and gentle comrade who represented our very best revolutionary values.
It is fitting that this august 15th National Congress met under the call of “Building a Militant, Revolutionary Labour Movement and Strengthening Anti-Imperialist Working-Class Unity to Defend Jobs and Advance Socialism”. No more bold call to action could be made.
Vladimir Lenin famously referred to days when history is made. These last few days will indeed go down in history as a turning point in this glorious Federation of John Gomomo and Nana Abrahams.
A mere month ago we were staring at the precipice. We could not even agree on proceeding with our long-scheduled congress. We were at each other’s throats. Many were writing our very obituary.
Today as we conclude this successful 15th National Congress, we can reflect with pride that when the very future of the Federation was at stake, we acted in defence of its unity, its history, its future, its members and workers across our land.
The spirit of unity and comradeship shown by every affiliate and delegate at this congress is inspiring. It is this unity that will ensure COSATU lives and it leads the working class.
When COSATU is divided, it cannot provide leadership to workers and society. When workers are divided, they cannot emerge victorious in our struggles.
It is this unity that is sacrosanct if we are to defend workers at the workplace and the CCMA when their jobs are in danger. It is this unity that is essential if we are to advance the call for a living wage and decent work for all.
It is this unity that is non-negotiable if we are to ensure that the state is biased towards the working class. It is this unity that is fundamental if we are to liberate the working class from the bondages of poverty, inequality and the most barbaric forms of corruption, and to lay the foundations for socialism in our lifetime.
The challenges facing the working class are dire. We cannot continue to normalise a 43.8% unemployment rate and higher for young people. We cannot continue to tolerate the scars of apartheid that mark our cities, towns and rural areas. We cannot continue to accept austerity budget cuts that cripple frontline public and municipal services.
We cannot be proud of our global shame as a society marked by horrific levels of crime and corruption and where the lives of our women, girls, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQIA Plus communities are at daily risk.
The call of this Congress is loud and clear. We remain united in our alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. The Alliance was forged during the darkest days of apartheid and has led the nation over the past 32 years as we dismantle 350 years of the most savage forms of colonial and racist rule.
Like any political formation or family, it has had its ups and downs, its contradictions and challenges but without a doubt it remains the most viable and progressive political vehicle to defend the hard-won rights of workers and to drive working class struggles.
COSATU has a leading role to play in defending the Alliance and to ensure its radical reconfiguration. This is urgent as we navigate this post-majority political era.
The unity of the Alliance is the path to its reconfiguration and survival. A united Alliance is also essential to a united COSATU. This Congress has been clear. The Federation cannot afford to be divided. Nor can the Alliance.
Our mandate is clear. We must give our full support to our beloved alliance Partners, the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party over the remaining two and a half weeks to ensure the Alliance decisively wins these elections and is able to form progressive governments across our municipalities that will be biased towards the working class. We have no time to spare.
We must leave no stone untouched. We must engage our members and workers, across all workplaces, at their homes, in the shops, at the taxi ranks and bus stations, on the need to vote, vote early and vote in defence of the National Democratic Revolution and that on November 4, our Alliance Partners emerge victorious.
We dare not abandon the contestation of the political landscape to big business or their political formations. We dare not hand over the state, one of the most important tools to drive the empowerment and the emancipation of the working class, to our class enemies.
COSATU must convene an urgent Alliance Political Council and Summit to ensure that the Alliance is united and the path to renewal set firmly in place.
This congress meets under the theme of challenging imperialism.
This demands that we intensify our solidarity campaigns with the working class across the world, from the people of Cuba facing a suffocating blockade, to Venezuela whose President continues to languish in prison, to Gaza and the people of Palestine facing a brutal genocide, to Western Sahara facing a modern-day colonisation and our brothers and sisters in Swaziland under the tyranny of an absolute monarchy.
These life and death struggles demand action in defence of the working class. They necessitate not only a united Federation and affiliates, but a vibrant, well-oiled, militant, class conscious, radical and active COSATU.
We must do more to recruit and organise the 72% of workers who remain ununionised. We must do more to empower and train our members and shop stewards to exercise their hard-won rights. We must do more to build our unions and action the call of Elijah Barayi of one industry, one union, one country, one federation.
This requires that we nourish this spirit of unity and that we invest in our machinery, including fundraising.
Important work has been tasked to the Central Executive Committee. These must be dealt with as a matter of priority, including preparations for the 41st anniversary celebrations of the Federation on 1 December.
Allow me to conclude by thanking each delegate and the leadership of our affiliates for the disciplined manner in which they have conducted themselves over these three days.
Your spirit of unity and comradeship lays the foundation for this Federation of Ray Alexander and Membathisi Mdladlana to defend workers and drive working class struggles.
Let us acknowledge and applaud the guidance and counsel of our former leaders as we navigated these difficult times. We will continue to rely upon your wisdom.
Allow me to thank the outgoing leadership collective of the Federation of comrades Zingiswa Losi, Duncan Luvuno, Solly Phetoe, Gerald Thwala and Freda Oosthuisen. You have served the Federation and the working class with distinction. You have raised the banner of working solidarity high. You have made us proud.
At a time when the nation has been pained by the most horrific forms of gender-based violence and sexual harassment, COSATU by electing four women out of six office bearers, sends a bold message that enough is enough.
We thank you comrade leaders. We are indebted to you. Thank you. Enkosi.
Allow me to congratulate the newly elected leadership of this mighty Federation of Bheki Mkhize and Dora Tamana; comrades Susan Khumalo, Mbalo Blose, Zingiswa Losi, Gerald Thwala and Kgomotso Makhupola. Together we will take COSATU to new heights. Our work begins now.
Comrades, lastly please travel safely to your homes. Your families, the Federation and the working class need you. We have much to do and can afford to lose no one.
Amandla! Matla! Matimba!