Taking COSATU Today Forward, 20 November 2025 #Cosatu@40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY Tomorrow, it’s #CosatuRedFridays… #G20SouthAfrica #VioletSeboniBrigade #Cosatu40thAnniversary #COP30noBrasil#JustTransition #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
20 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!
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU presented its key proposals on measures to stem the current waves of retrenchments to Parliament
- Applications for media accreditation to cover COSATU 40th Anniversary rally officially opened
- South Africa
- COSATU urges the SARB to provide badly needed relief with a repo rate cut of at least 50 basis points on Thursday
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Transgender Day of Remembrance: Defending trans people in the workplace Statement by the Council of Global Unions
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU
presented its key proposals on measures to stem the current waves of retrenchments to Parliament
Tony
Ehrenreich, COSATU Deputy Parliamentary Coordinator, 19 November 2025
The
Congress of South African Trade Unions presented its key proposals on measures to stem the current wave of retrenchments to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour.
The economy has been battling to grow beyond 1% per annum since 2008 with unemployment remaining dangerously high at 42.4%. Workers cannot afford to see a single job lost.
This year has seen key sectors of the economy placed under severe pressure due to global restructuring, the United States’ new tariff regime of 30% on South African exports threatening thousands of agricultural and manufacturing jobs, an embattled steel industry
amongst other key challenges.
The increasingly unaffordable price of electricity has had a devastating impact on the industrial and manufacturing sectors, with an estimated 350 000 jobs lost over the past decade and key employers like Glencore raising alarm bells about the pending closure
of further smelters and job losses.
The Federation has been engaging key government departments and businesses at Nedlac on urgent interim measures as well as long term solutions.
Given the gravity of the threats of job losses, it is urgent that government interventions to stem a possible bloodbath now be put in place.
Key measures need to include tax rebates, industrial subsidies and incentives, and fixing the endless bureaucratic blockages at the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employee Relief Scheme.
Special actions are needed to provide breathing space for electricity intensive users buckling under the increasingly unaffordable price of electricity. In the interim these companies need relief of some shape. In the longer term, Eskom needs to be supported
to plug its massive financial leakages, in particular the R100 billion owed to it by municipalities that is increasing by R20 billion per annum.
This
requires that all electricity consumers be moved to prepaid billing. Similarly, Eskom needs to be assisted to tackle the corruption, wasteful expenditure, cable theft and vandalism that is costing it billions.
Too many workers, businesses and key economic sectors are under severe strain.
Support and relief from government, the developmental financial institutions and the private banks is urgently needed. Struggling workers, businesses and key economic sectors need practical solidarity not best wishes or PowerPoint presentations.
COSATU will continue to push government and businesses to put in place measures to save and sustain at risk jobs, businesses and sectors.
This is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
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
COSATU urges the SARB to provide badly needed relief with a repo rate cut of at least 50 basis points on Thursday
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 19 November 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urges the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to provide workers and the economy with badly needed relief with a repo rate cut of at least 50 basis points when its Monetary Policy Committee meets on Thursday.
The National Credit Regulator reports on household debt paints a terrifying picture of the working and middle classes drowning in debt. This crisis has been made worse with the 475 basis points hikes since the war in Ukraine started three years ago and international oil prices skyrocketed.
Increases to the repo rate have made life unbearable for millions of poorly paid workers struggling to buy the essential goods of life and provide for their families. Whilst there have been some repo rate cuts since then, they have been too far and few to make a meaningful dent.
Pegging the repo rate at excessive levels inflicts unnecessary pain upon workers, especially when the key factors in South Africa’s inflation are administered prices not consumer driven, e.g. the fuel price driven by international oil fluctuations and Eskom’s unsustainable dependence upon double digit tariff hikes to compensate for its massive financial leakages, in particular the millions who do not pay for electricity consumed.
A repo rate cut of at least 50 basis points will reduce the debt burden upon millions of workers, enable them to spend money stimulating economic growth and thus sustaining and creating jobs. As we head towards the festive season when the retail and hospitality sectors seek to cover their costs and where millions of workers are employed, the economy needs an injection of stimulus to weather a difficult year for the nation.
With inflation consistently falling and currently at 3.6% there is plenty of space to provide relief to the nation after a long year.
We hope SARB will err on the side of workers, the unemployed and an economy in desperate need of growth. It will be an abomination if SARB with the proposed new inflation target of 3% and a 1% margin decides against providing some TLC to an exhausted nation and a fragile economy.
COSATU will continue to engage with the leadership of SARB on the need to cushion workers, stimulate the economy and create jobs whilst managing inflation.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
Transgender Day of Remembrance: Defending trans people in the workplace
Statement by the Council of Global Unions
Trade union rights are human rights Equity and inclusion LGBTI+ rights, 19 November 2025
November 20th is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance ( TDoR) when we mourn our lost siblings and call for justice. It is also an opportunity to remember that an injury to one is an injury to all; trade unions have a duty to defend trans workers.
The rise of the far right in many countries has had a catastrophic effect on the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community. Make no mistake, they will not stop at attacking the LGBTI community. Migrant workers are already in the firing line, and other marginalised groups will follow.
Figures just released by the Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project for TDoR reveal that:
- 281 trans and gender diverse people were reported murdered between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025.
- Sex workers (34%) remain the most targeted group of all known occupations.
- There was a notable rise in murders of activists and trans-rights leaders, who are the second most targeted group by occupation this year, accounting for 14% of cases (up from 9% in 2024 and 6% in 2023).
- 68% of murders occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean; Brazil leads the list for the 18th consecutive year with 30% of total cases.
- Echoing the pattern of previous years, 90% of reported murders were feminicides (victims were trans women or transfeminine people).
The update from TTM notes that while the number of 281 trans and gender diverse people murdered has declined since the 2024 update (350), this decline does not necessarily signal increased safety. More likely it reflects growing invisibility of these murders in media reporting—a trend that may be shaped by changes in search engine and social media algorithms or widespread media disinterest, which can make murders harder to identify and verify.
Solidarity is needed now more than ever - trade unions must continue to advocate for safe, inclusive workplaces for all workers.
Concerns about the attacks on the trans community should not be limited to LGBTI spaces. These attacks impact everyone and represent the initial front in broader assaults on civil liberties and workers’ rights. It is the responsibility of the trade union movement across the world to ensure that it is understood that transphobic rhetoric is a way of attacking other protections and rights. Deeming certain groups undeserving of fundamental rights sets dangerous precedents which can be weaponised in other areas, such as collective bargaining, freedom of association, and workplace health and safety.
“History has taught us that we cannot remain silent. We call on everyone in society to take action in whatever capacity they can, to protect the lives of transgender and gender diverse people, to demand a better world where all lives are valued and respected.”
Michele Kessler, Chair of the CGU LGBTI Committee
Trans rights are LGBTI rights, LGBTI rights are trade union rights, trade union rights are human rights.
This is a Council of Global Unions (CGU) Statement jointly signed by:
- Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI)
- Education International (EI)
- International Arts and Entertainment Alliance (IAEA)
- IndustriALL Global Union
- International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
- International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
- International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF)
- Public Services International (PSI)
- Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC)
- UNI Global Union
- International Domestic Workers’ Federation (IDWF)
______________________________
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