Taking COSATU Today Forward, 26 November 2025 #Cosatu40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY #COSATU NOB’s/CEC Members engaged with workers at train stations in Gauteng as part of mobilisation for #Cosatu40thAnniversary celebrations #Cosatu40 #VioletSeboniBrigade #Cosatu40thAnniversary #Cosatu scheduled to hold its 40th Anniversary at Dobsonville, Soweto on December 6 #Cosatu@40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
26 November 2025
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize at every workplace and demand respect for labour rights Now!
Defend Jobs Now!
Join COSATU NOW!
Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU scheduled to hold a post Central Executive Committee (CEC) media briefing on Thursday, 27 November 2025
- Swinging for Dignity: COSATU and President Ramaphosa Tee Off for a Cause
- Applications for media accreditation to cover COSATU 40th Anniversary rally officially opened
- South Africa
- NEHAWU signs settlement agreement with the National Department of Health for the permanent employment of Community Healthcare Workers
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- When it clicks, you can’t unsee it! When sexual harassment and racism intersect – ‘Misogynoir’
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU scheduled to hold a post Central Executive Committee (CEC) media briefing on Thursday, 27 November 2025
Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson, 25 November 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will hold a media briefing on Thursday, 27 November 2025, to communicate the outcomes of its final ordinary Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting for the year.
2025 marks a year in which the working class was tested on many fronts and a year in which the Federation has been able to secure critical victories for the working class.
This CEC takes place at a critical time for workers time with the G20 just having concluded, the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement tabled at Parliament and the Local Government Elections set for next year.
COSATU will be hosting its annual Charity Golf Challenge with President Cyril Ramaphosa on 4 December and its 40th anniversary celebrations on 6 December at Dobsonville Stadium.
COSATU will provide updates on these important issues and more at the briefing on Thursday.
The details of the media briefing are as follows:
•
Date : 27 November 2025
• Time : 11h00
• Venue : COSATU House, 110 Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.
All
members of the media are invited to the briefing.
Issued by COSATU
For more information please contact:
Zanele Sabela (COSATU National Spokesperson)
_____________________
Swinging for Dignity: COSATU and President Ramaphosa Tee Off for a Cause
Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson, 24 November 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is thrilled to announce its second annual Charity Golf Challenge, an inspiring event where labour, business and government unite on the green for a great cause. Members of the media are warmly invited to attend and cover this unique blend of sport, leadership and social impact.
This flagship initiative is more than a Corporate Social Investment project — it is a powerful demonstration of COSATU’s unwavering commitment to social justice and restoring dignity in communities beyond the workplace.
In a true celebration of Ubuntu, President Cyril Ramaphosa will join COSATU leaders, government departments and business partners on the golf course to help raise funds for its activities, school shoes and sanitary packs for underprivileged learners. Every swing will contribute to changing a child’s school experience and supporting their confidence and wellbeing.
Join us for a remarkable day of purpose-driven play:
COSATU Charity Golf Challenge
- Date: Thursday, 04 December 2025
- Presidential Tee off: 10:40
- Participants Tee off: 11:00 (Shotgun Start)
- Venue: Country Club Johannesburg (CCJ Woodmead)
The challenge will be followed by an elegant Gala Dinner at 18.30, where the day’s achievements will be celebrated and partners honoured.
Members of the media wishing to attend are invited to send their details to non...@cosatu.org.za
Issued by COSATU
_________________________
Applications for media accreditation to cover COSATU 40th Anniversary rally officially opened
Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson,10 November 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) invites all members of the media to apply for accreditation to attend and cover the Federation’s historic 40th Anniversary rally. This momentous event is scheduled to take place on 6 December at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto.
COSATU was launched on 1 December 1985, at the height of the struggle against apartheid. Its formation brought together 33 competing unions and federations that were opposed to apartheid but committed to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
Alliance partners, local and international guests have been invited to celebrate 40 years of this vibrant movement advancing, defending and protecting the interests and rights of workers and the working class in South Africa and beyond.
Applications for accreditation may be submitted to mam...@cosatu.org.za or non...@cosatu.org.za with the following details:
Name:
Surname:
ID number:
Media House/Address:
Contact number/email:
Alternatively, an application form can be completed via this link:
COSATU 40th Anniversary Media Accreditation Application Form – Fill out form
Issued by COSATU
Zanele Sabela (National Spokesperson)
Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639
Email: zan...@cosatu.org.za
NEHAWU signs settlement agreement with the National Department of Health for the permanent employment of Community Healthcare Workers
Zola Saphetha, NEHAWU General Secretary, November 25, 2025
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU], the fighting and militant union committed to transform the public healthcare system, has been engaged in an unremitting struggle for the permanent employment of Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs).
The union wants to register to its members and the general public that today, Tuesday 25th November 2025, it has signed and concluded an implementation agreement with the National Department of Health for the permanent employment of the CHWs in line with the Labour Court Judgement of January 2025.
The implementation agreement follows a protracted process of implementing the historic Labour Court Judgement which directed that the CHWs are ‘deemed to be of an indefinite duration’ meaning that Community Health Workers must be appointed permanently.
The agreement represents a major achievement in the fight and struggle for the permanent employment of the CHWs and it advances the course of the creation of decent jobs. Furthermore, the agreement is a turning-point against the unabated exploitation of the CHWs and the workers in general especially those that we, together with our federation COSATU, have identified as vulnerable workers or the precariat. But it is also a progressive gain for the broader struggle of the working class as our agreement shall facilitate the strengthening of the primary healthcare system as a foundational platform for the realisation of Universal Health Coverage through the National Health Insurance (NHI).
As NEHAWU, we have always premised our struggle for the permanent employment of the CHWs with the view that the work of this cadre is of critical importance in the context of the role of the Ward Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams that are a key component of the re-engineering of the primary healthcare services towards building capacity for the full implementation of the NHI.
This development must be welcomed as it is a key part of the current Phase 1 in the implementation of the necessary restructuring related to the NHI Act of 2024.
The CHWs have emerged in black communities as selfless and dedicated volunteers over many decades ago amidst the pervasive lack of access to healthcare, especially palliative care, under Apartheid.
Thus, the CHWs have contributed significantly in improving the health status of our people, including through their pioneering health promotion campaigns. This contingent of healthcare workers has on many occasions proven to be the backbone of the healthcare system and the important role they play in promoting health and wellbeing of our people.
The signing of the agreement by both parties will see the department permanently employing all eligible 27 000 CHWs at Public Service Salary Level 2 effective from 01 September 2025. Furthermore, parties agreed that the implementation date of 01 September 2025 shall be limited to a payment of 3 months net remuneration, while the commencement date for pensionable salaries of the CHWs shall start from 01 December 2025.
Equally, the department agreed to provide an interim stipend increase of R1000 to the residual 16,687 CHWs for the financial year 2025/26 until their permanent appointment. This adjustment will start from 01 September 2025 and remain in place until the permanent appointments are finalized for those eligible.
Parties further agreed to finalise the implementation of the permanent appointment of the remaining 16 687 CHWs and the determination and implementation of a Token of Appreciation for CHWs who have reached pensionable age by no later than 31 January 2026.
Key to the achievement of this implementation agreement, fundamentally, is saving and guarantying job security of about 43 687 CHWs but not limited to with clear time-lines and benefits as opposed to the historic form of employment of this cohort of employees - the Community Healthcare Workers which were subjected to continuous fixed term contracts with salaries that have no bearing to their pensions and completely with no benefits over a long period of time. Indeed, this is a victory to be celebrated as families of CHWs will go to bed with assurance of their jobs being guaranteed.
Indeed, the signing of the agreement must be linked with a significant improvement to the conditions of services of CHWs that have been subjected overtime to as well as addressing the vast shortages of personnel in the healthcare system, as underscored in the 2030 Human Resource for Health Strategy where it states that “the prevailing Human Resource for Health challenges are a result of continued underinvestment, limited strategic planning and management capacity, and gaps in governance, stewardship, accountability, coordination and implementation of key health workforce policy interventions for the delivery of quality services”.
As NEHAWU, we reiterate our perspective that the permanent employment of the CHWs is an investment in the healthcare system and will address the challenges encountering our healthcare system. The CHWs play a critical role in improving the quality of our healthcare services. This is going to contribute positively towards strengthening our healthcare system to ensure that it provides access to quality health services for all in line with the principles of universal health coverage.
The union will tirelessly continue uninterrupted to fight for its members, workers and the working class in general in bettering their working and living conditions. As such, this gigantic, red and transformative will be convening membership meetings to report-back on the latest developments blow by blow and explain the practical meaning of this settlement in the lives of community healthcare workers whose respect and dignity have taken away by employers and the system.
In this regard, we call on all CHWs to attend all these important meetings scheduled by the national union for further information regarding their fully employment without being distracted by deliberate misinformation meant to confuse them for cheap and narrow interest for membership gains which have nothing to do with their fight for full employment.
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat.
International-Solidarity
When it clicks, you can’t unsee it! When sexual harassment and racism intersect – ‘Misogynoir’
Equity and inclusionAdvancing gender equality in and through educationpublished 25 November 2025updated 25 November 2025written by:
Jennifer Mosesr the Worlds of Education newsletter.
For more than twenty-five years I have stood at the intersection of education and trade unionism. I have fought for social justice, equality and trade union rights and organised teachers across the UK as well as across continents. I am a trade unionist because I believe that workplaces can – and must- be places of dignity, safety and collective power.
Across my career I have seen the slow, corrosive ways sexual harassment and misogyny erode that dignity, and how the harm lands differently when you are a Black/Global majority woman or from a minoritised group.
However, nothing in my decades of experience prepared me for the conversation I had recently with a young Black/Global majority teacher who told me about the deep fake pornographic images of her that had been circulated among her students. “I didn’t recognise it as sexual harassment at first”, she said. “I just thought it was part of the job – that this is what we have to endure as teachers”.
Those words “ I didn’t recognise it”, echo a devastating finding from the UK Trade Union Congress (TUC) groundbreaking 2024 report into Black women’s experiences of sexual harassment, ‘ And then it clicked’ . An area of work which the NASUWT has been proud to play a leading role in and fully supported its recommendations. The report reveals that many Black women don’t immediately identify their experiences as sexual harassment until they hear other women naming similar violations. One participant explained how something suddenly clicked when she started articulating her experiences: “Being able to articulate that and to say, why am I getting this treatment, is it sexual harassment? Or is it ignorance? Is it racism? And I think once we start being able to articulate it, and to use those words, like with me, suddenly something clicks, and you are like, hang on a minute, yes, it was wrong.”
A hidden epidemic
The statistics from the TUC report are staggering. 65% of Black women surveyed reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment, including unwelcome verbal sexual advances, unwanted touching, or sexual jokes. But here’s what makes this crisis particularly insidious for Black/Global majority women; we face violence at the intersection of racism and sexism – what scholar Moya Bailey termed ‘misogynoir’. The report found that 53% of respondents reported they had been subject to racist remarks or racist comments. This isn’t just sexual harassment. It is racially sexualised harassment, where our bodies, our hair, our very presence becomes the target of violation.
As the report notes, Black/Global majority women are expected to navigate spaces where we are often alone and at risk of harassment and assault, without an effective support system to help us challenge our organisations. Often, we are the ‘only’ or ‘one of the few’, which impacts whether we will be believed when we speak up.
The issue of speaking up or reporting online harassment or digital violence in schools or colleges, resonates with an NASUWT survey of its members in 2022 which showed that of the 92% who had reported online abuse to school leadership, only 23% felt that their complaint had been dealt with adequately, with no action taken at all in 45% of cases.
Thus, sexual harassment, misogyny and misogynoir remain a hidden epidemic in UK schools and other workplaces because they are woven into everyday workplace culture – normalised as ‘banter’, dismissed as misunderstandings or minimised when directed at Black/Global majority women.
The digital dimension: when technology weaponises Misogyny/Misogynoir
Now add artificial intelligence and digital technology to this toxic mix. The 2024 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report paints a disturbing picture of how technology is amplifying violence against women and girls in education. The 2025 UK Girlguiding Girls’ Attitudes Survey shines a light on girls’ experiences of misogyny. The report showed that a staggering 68% of young girls have changed their everyday behaviour to avoid sexual harassment. 1 in 10 of 11–16-year-olds have missed school to avoid sexual harassment largely experienced in the form of digital violence.
This year’s global 16 Days of Activism theme – Unite to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls - rightly recognises that violence has migrated into new spaces. In education, the misuse of digital platforms amplifies misogyny/misogynoir and they provide perpetrators with new avenues to exert power.
This theme provides an important and urgent opportunity to review our policies, practices and campaigning/bargaining priorities on tackling sexual harassment and misogyny/misogynoir. Organisations as well as trade unions must therefore bring anti-harassment/bullying strategies into the digital realm as vigorously as we do in the physical school or workplace.
Intersectionality matters
The work of the NASUWT and wider UK TUC recognises that sexual harassment can be prevalent for younger and disabled women, Black, LGBTI and migrant workers, and those in insecure forms of work, with experiences compounded by racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. Our unions must recognise and resource responses that reflect such complexities.
What must we do now?
Firstly (and importantly) we must listen and believe. We must create spaces where Black/Global majority, disabled, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, and young women can speak without sanitising their experiences. This must be the norm in our branches: support backed with trauma-aware reporting processes that work.
Secondly, transform policy into practice. It is not enough to have a policy on a piece of paper. Processes and investigations must be independent, timely and victim/survivor centred; managers and school governors must be trained to see how (for example) racialised stereotypes feed harassment and digital safety must be explicit in policies and codes of conduct.
And finally, show solidarity during the 16 Days. Use the campaign to centre the voices of those most affected - push for survivor-centred remedies. Solidarity is not only symbolic – it is protective.
I will end with a simple truth - change happens when we name the problem, break the silence and organise collectively. Once it ‘clicks’, you cannot unknow the problem, the pattern. For many Black/Global majority women that moment of recognition is wrenching – but it is also a route to demand action; from employers, from unions, from Governments and from each other. If we are serious about ending sexual harassment and misogyny/misogynoir in education, we must commit to intersectional action, policies that see race, gender and gender identity together and organising that builds power, individually and collectively. The 16 Days of Activism is a calendar movement – let us make it a turning point.
______________________________
Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348