Taking COSATU Today Forward, 22 June 2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #COSATU acknowledges all organisers, shopstewards and worker leaders who mobilised workers during the #NationalAction against #HighCostofLiving campaign launch in nine provinces… #NationaActionAgainstCostOfLiving #ClassWar #Cosatu40 #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
22 June 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- POPCRU welcomes Labour Appeal Court victory against DCS on G4S/Mangaung Section 197 matter
- NEHAWU to convene its 13th National Congress
- South Africa
- SADTU supports COSATU’s high cost of living marches
- POPCRU Supports COSATU’s National Protest Action Against the Escalating Cost of Living
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Nigerian unions develop strong plan to build worker power at Dangote
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
POPCRU welcomes Labour Appeal Court victory against DCS on G4S/Mangaung Section 197 matter
Richard Mamabolo, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 19 June 2026
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) welcomes yesterday’s Labour Court outcome dismissing the Department of Correctional Services’ application to stay the execution of its previous Labour Court judgment declaring that Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act applies to the transfer of the Mangaung Correctional Center to the Department of Correctional Services.
This victory is yet another confirmation of POPCRU’s consistent position that the rights, interests and livelihoods of workers cannot be treated as an inconvenience in the process of the Department taking over the Mangaung Correctional Centre from G4S.
POPCRU, together with G4S, previously approached the Labour Court seeking a declaratory order that Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act (which ensures that the current employees are also taken over by the Department) applies to the take over by the Department. This was necessary because the Department of Correctional Services had sought to proceed with the takeover of the Mangaung Correctional Centre without giving effect to the rights and protections of affected workers as required by law. The Labour Court ordered that Section 197 of the LRA applies to the transfer, thereby affirming that workers must not be abandoned, displaced or prejudiced in the process.
Despite this judgment, the Department of Correctional Services proceeded as though the court order did not exist. It continued making arrangements to take over the Mangaung Correctional Centre by 1 July 2026 without taking measures to implement Section 197 in line with the court order. This conduct demonstrated a worrying disregard for workers, collective labour rights and the authority of the courts.
The Department later launched three separate processes in the Labour Court. Firstly, it filed an application for leave to appeal against the section 197 Court Order, and this process is still pending. Secondly, it filed a condonation application due to its late filing of the application for leave to appeal, outside the stipulated timeframes, which will also be dealt with at a later stage. Thirdly, it brought an application to stay the execution of the Section 197 Court Order. POPCRU opposed this application, and today the Labour Appeal Court dismissed the Department’s application.
This means that POPCRU has scored another important victory in defence of workers. The Department has once again been reminded that it cannot act outside the law, ignore court orders and treat affected employees as though they are disposable.
POPCRU is deeply concerned by the Department’s continued arrogance and unwillingness to engage meaningfully with the union on matters of mutual interest. Last week, POPCRU wrote to the Department requesting a meeting to discuss these pressing issues, but this request was ignored. This is unacceptable. Workers on the ground are anxious, affected and suffering, yet the Department continues to behave as though consultation is optional.
It is regrettable that the Department appears to understand only the language of the courts. Instead of engaging openly and responsibly with organised labour, it continues to spend taxpayers’ money on avoidable litigation, including matters it ought to know it is unlikely to win. This is not money coming from the pockets of those who take reckless decisions. It is public money that should be used to strengthen Correctional Services, improve working conditions, address overcrowding, fill vacancies and ensure safer correctional facilities.
POPCRU is further disturbed by reports that, in its preparations to take over the Mangaung Correctional Centre outside the boundaries of Section 197 and contrary to the spirit of the Labour Court judgment, the Department has stripped other correctional facilities of almost 100 officials in order to deploy them to Mangaung. These are facilities that are already facing serious challenges of overcrowding and staff shortages. Such an approach does not solve the crisis; it merely transfers it from one centre to another while placing both officials and inmates at greater risk.
The union has consistently warned that Correctional Services cannot be managed through shortcuts, arrogance and disregard for labour rights. The Department cannot claim to be restoring control at Mangaung while creating instability in other correctional centres. A responsible takeover process must protect workers, respect court orders, comply with labour legislation and ensure that operational planning does not deepen the existing crisis of understaffing across the correctional system.
POPCRU leadership will today brief affected G4S/Mangaung members in Bloemfontein on the latest developments and the way forward. This engagement forms part of POPCRU’s commitment to keeping members fully informed, legally protected and organisationally mobilised.
POPCRU wishes to assure all affected workers that the union will not retreat. We will continue to defend the implementation of Section 197, protect workers’ rights, and ensure that no employee is sacrificed through administrative arrogance or unlawful decision-making.
This victory must send a clear message to the Department of Correctional Services: workers are not collateral damage. Court orders are not suggestions. Labour rights are not optional. POPCRU will use every organisational, legal and political avenue available to defend its members and to ensure that the takeover of Mangaung Correctional Centre is handled lawfully, fairly and in the interests of workers and the correctional system as a whole.
Issued by POPCRU
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NEHAWU to convene its 13th National Congress
Lwazi Nkolonzi, NEHAWU National Spokesperson, June 08, 2026
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] will hold its 13th National Congress at the Birchwood Hotel & Conference Centre in Boksburg from the 26th to 29th of June 2026.
The congress is convened under the theme “Advance Workplace Organisation to Defend Collective Bargaining, Heighten Class Consciousness and Advance Internationalism".
The congress will serve as a critical platform to deliberate and develop concrete responses to key international, national political and socio-economic matters as well as organisational matters affecting our members and the working class in general.
The congress will receive addresses from the African National Congress [ANC], South African Communist Party [SACP], Congress of South African Trade Unions [COSATU], World Federation of Trade Unions [WFTU] and Trade Union International Public Service & Allied [TUI – PS&A].
The congress will be attended by more than 750 delegates drawn from all structures of the union and other fraternal organizations from South Africa and Internationally.
Members of the media are hereby invited to apply for accreditation to cover the 13th National Congress.
The following information should be included in the application: Full name, Media House, and contact details.
The deadline for accreditation applications is Friday 19th June 2026.
The application for accreditation should be sent to the following email: lwa...@nehawu.org.za
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
For further information, please contact: Lwazi Nkolonzi (National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwa...@nehawu.org.za
Visit NEHAWU website: www.nehawu.org.za
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
SADTU supports COSATU’s high cost of living marches
Dr Mugwena Maluleke, SADTU General Secretary, 18 June 2026
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) stands firmly behind the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in its national marches against the high cost of living taking place across the country on Friday, 19 June 2026.
These marches form part of COSATU’s ongoing campaign to defend workers, the unemployed, pensioners, and poor communities from the worsening cost of living crisis that continues to erode the dignity and livelihoods of millions of South Africans.
Workers and communities are facing immense economic hardship as wages are depleted within days of payday, while the costs of basic necessities continue to rise. According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group’s Household Affordability Index, the average household food basket in May 2026 stood at R5 479,26. This amount is significantly higher than the National Minimum Wage income of a general worker, which is R4 836,80 per month.
This alarming reality means that many working-class families and grant recipients cannot afford adequate food, let alone meet other essential needs such as electricity, water, transport, healthcare, and education-related expenses. The burden is particularly severe for workers in low-income households who are forced to make impossible choices between feeding their families and paying for basic services.
According to Statistics South Africa, annual consumer inflation rose to 4,5% in May 2026, the highest level since July 2024, driven largely by escalating fuel costs. The fuel index increased by 14,3% in May, recording an annual increase of 28,7%. Rising fuel prices continue to have a ripple effect across the economy, driving up the costs of food, transport, and other essential goods and services.
SADTU fully supports COSATU’s call for urgent government intervention to protect workers and the poor from the devastating impact of the cost of living crisis. We support the Federation’s demands for:
• • A reduction in electricity and water tariffs.
• • Lower fuel prices and measures to stabilise food costs.
• • An end to austerity measures that undermine public services and economic growth.
• • Expanded social protection for the unemployed, vulnerable households, and poor communities.
• • Increased social grants to help cushion the most vulnerable against rising living costs.
• • The introduction of a Universal Basic Income Grant to provide a sustainable social safety net.
As a union representing education workers, SADTU is acutely aware that the cost of living crisis affects not only educators but also learners and their families. Hunger, poverty, and inequality remain significant barriers to quality education and learner success.
We therefore call on all workers, communities, and progressive forces to support COSATU’s marches and join the collective struggle for economic justice, decent living conditions, and a more equitable society.
We urge government to prioritise the needs of workers and the poor over policies that deepen inequality and social hardship.
ISSUED BY: SADTU Secretariat
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POPCRU Supports COSATU’s National Protest Action Against the Escalating Cost of Living
Richard Mamabolo, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 19 June 2026
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) expresses its full and unwavering support for the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ national protest action against the escalating cost of living, taking place across all provinces today, Friday, 19 June 2026.
This national action is both timely and necessary. It gives organised expression to the daily cries of millions of workers, public servants, the unemployed, pensioners, youth, and working-class communities who are being crushed by rising food prices, unbearable transport costs, unaffordable electricity and water tariffs, high interest rates, medical aid increases, and stagnant wages that are continuously eroded by inflation.
COSATU has correctly characterised the cost-of-living crisis as having reached alarming levels, with demonstrations planned across the country to demand urgent action from both government and the private sector. This campaign arises from COSATU’s Central Executive Committee resolutions, which identified steep increases in food, energy, transport, electricity and water costs as among the major factors pushing working-class families deeper into debt.
As POPCRU, we support this action because our members are not immune from these harsh realities. Police officers, correctional officials, traffic officers, and other workers within the Criminal Justice Cluster wake up daily to serve the country under difficult and often dangerous conditions, yet their wages are increasingly swallowed by transport, food, school fees, electricity, water, debt repayments and medical expenses before they can even meet the basic needs of their families.
It is unacceptable that workers who safeguard communities, maintain correctional centres, enforce the law, manage overcrowded facilities, respond to violent crime, and hold together the institutions of public safety are themselves unable to live with dignity. No society can claim to value law enforcement and public safety while the workers responsible for these functions are forced to survive on shrinking disposable incomes.
The current economic conditions are not merely statistical figures on inflation charts. They are lived experiences in workers’ homes. They are seen in lunchboxes that are becoming emptier, in families that are forced to choose between transport money and groceries, in workers who borrow to buy food, in public servants who survive from debt to debt, and in communities where poverty becomes fertile ground for crime, violence, substance abuse and social instability.
POPCRU therefore views COSATU’s protest action as a legitimate, protected and necessary working-class intervention aimed at forcing the country to confront the social emergency unfolding before us.
*The burden on public servants has become unbearable
For years, public servants have been expected to absorb the shocks of an economy that continues to punish the poor and reward the powerful. Workers are told to be patient while food prices rise. They are told to tighten their belts while electricity tariffs increase. They are told to be patriotic while fuel costs make travelling to work unaffordable. They are told to accept below-inflation adjustments while executives, monopolies and financial institutions continue to protect their profit margins.
This cannot continue.
Public servants are the backbone of the state. In our case, POPCRU members are found in SAPS, DCS, traffic services and related components of the Criminal Justice Cluster. They operate in overcrowded prisons, under-resourced police stations, understaffed units, unsafe workplaces and high-pressure environments. Many work long hours, face trauma, respond to life-threatening incidents, and carry the burden of a society in crisis.
Yet, when these workers return home, they are confronted by the same crisis they spend the day trying to manage in society: unemployment in their families, debt, unaffordable transport, high food prices, municipal service failures and rising medical costs.
It is for this reason that POPCRU insists that the cost-of-living crisis is also a public safety crisis. A demoralised, indebted and economically suffocated workforce cannot be expected to carry the burden of a state that is itself under pressure.
*Austerity worsens the crisis
POPCRU further supports COSATU’s call for an end to austerity. The continued underfunding of public services has weakened the state’s capacity to deliver quality services, fill vacancies, improve infrastructure and protect workers.
In the Criminal Justice Cluster, austerity has translated into personnel shortages, deteriorating police stations, overcrowded correctional centres, inadequate tools of trade, strained wellness services, and delayed interventions in critical areas. These conditions do not only affect workers; they directly undermine service delivery and public confidence in state institutions.
The cost-of-living crisis cannot be resolved through austerity. It requires a developmental state that invests in people, strengthens public services, expands social protection, creates decent work, and ensures that the burden of economic recovery does not fall on workers and the poor.
We reject any approach that seeks to balance the books by weakening the very public services that working-class communities rely on. Budget cuts in policing, corrections, health, education, transport, local government and social services do not save the country; they deepen inequality and push communities further into desperation.
*Workers need real relief, not empty promises
POPCRU supports COSATU’s demands for practical and urgent interventions, including the enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, progress towards a living wage, increases in social grants, the introduction of a Universal Basic Income Grant, reduction of electricity and water costs, lower fuel and food prices, an end to austerity, and expansion of the social wage.
These are not reckless demands. They are rational and necessary measures aimed at stabilising households, protecting workers, reducing poverty and preventing further social collapse.
*Government must move beyond sympathy. It must act.
The private sector must also be held accountable. Retailers, banks, fuel companies, food producers, medical schemes and other powerful economic actors cannot continue to shift the burden of the crisis onto workers while protecting their own profits. The working class cannot be used as a shock absorber for every economic crisis.
POPCRU calls for decisive interventions to regulate excessive food pricing, reduce administered prices, address exploitative lending practices, strengthen public transport, protect consumers from unjustified tariff increases, and ensure that workers’ wages are not continuously eroded by inflation and debt.
*The Criminal Justice Cluster cannot be isolated from the economy
There is a dangerous tendency to treat police, correctional and traffic services as if they exist outside broader society. This is a mistake. The conditions of workers in the Criminal Justice Cluster are directly linked to the broader socio-economic conditions in the country.
When poverty rises, crime rises. When unemployment deepens, social instability grows. When communities lose access to basic services, protests increase. When households are pushed into hunger and desperation, violence and social tensions escalate. When the state fails to address inequality, the burden eventually lands on the shoulders of police officers, correctional officials and traffic officers.
POPCRU therefore argues that fighting the cost-of-living crisis is also part of fighting crime, protecting communities, stabilising families and rebuilding confidence in the state.
No policing strategy can succeed in a sea of poverty. No correctional system can rehabilitate effectively in a society that produces mass unemployment and despair. No traffic system can function optimally when workers cannot afford transport and municipalities cannot maintain infrastructure.
This is why the struggle against the cost of living is not separate from the struggle for safer communities, better working conditions, and a capable developmental state.
*POPCRU calls on its members to support the working-class programme
POPCRU calls on its structures and members, where possible and within the applicable organisational and legal frameworks, to support COSATU’s programme of action and continue raising awareness around the cost-of-living crisis in workplaces and communities.
We further call on all workers to remain disciplined, united and focused on the real issues affecting the working class. The enemy is not the poor. The enemy is not fellow workers. The enemy is the economic system that keeps millions unemployed, underpaid, indebted and dependent while wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a few.
At a time when dangerous and divisive narratives seek to misdirect the anger of workers towards vulnerable groups, POPCRU reiterates that the working class must not be divided. Workers must direct their collective energy towards structural transformation, decent work, affordable living, quality public services, and economic justice.
*Our demands
POPCRU joins COSATU in calling for:
Urgent measures to reduce food, fuel, electricity, water and transport costs.
An end to austerity and the filling of funded vacancies in the public service.
The strengthening of collective bargaining and protection of workers’ wages.
Progress towards a living wage for all workers.
Expansion of the social wage, including quality healthcare, education, housing and public transport.
Full implementation of the National Health Insurance as part of building a fair public healthcare system.
Protection of public servants from exploitative medical aid increases and debt traps.
Decisive action against corruption, wasteful expenditure and profiteering.
Greater taxation of wealth and corporate excess instead of punishing workers and the poor.
A developmental economic programme that creates decent jobs, reduces inequality and restores dignity to working-class communities.
POPCRU stands firmly with COSATU in this national protest action. This is not a protest for narrow organisational interests; it is a protest for the survival, dignity and future of the working class.
The escalating cost of living has become a national emergency. It threatens households, workplaces, communities and the stability of the country. It demands urgent, coordinated and decisive intervention.
Workers cannot continue to carry the burden of a crisis they did not create. The poor cannot continue paying for the failures of policy, greed, corruption and austerity. Public servants cannot continue to be praised in speeches while being abandoned in practice.
POPCRU therefore says: enough is enough.
The struggle against the rising cost of living is a struggle for dignity. It is a struggle for decent work. It is a struggle for safe communities. It is a struggle for a capable state. It is a struggle for the working class.
An injury to one is an injury to all.
Issued by POPCRU
International-Solidarity
Nigerian unions develop strong plan to build worker power at Dangote
18 June, 2026
Five IndustriALL-affiliated unions met in Lagos on 27-28 May to agree a co-ordinated response to labour rights violations across the Dangote Group. The
meeting produced an action plan to build a continent-wide trade union network spanning Dangote's growing African operations.
The agenda includes mapping the workforce across Africa and mounting organising campaigns. Unions will also monitor labour rights abuses and develop common demands around collective bargaining, workplace safety, freedom of association and social dialogue.
The unions were the National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Senior Staff Association (CANMPSSAN)
and the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers (NUTGTW).
Unions fight back
The meeting follows years of documented exploitation across the Dangote Group. Casual and contract workers receive lower wages and fewer protections than permanent staff. Health and safety standards are poor and the group refuses meaningful collective bargaining
even where unions are organized.
In September 2025, the US$20 billion Dangote Refinery on the outskirts of Lagos dismissed 800 workers the day after they joined PENGASSAN. Management attributed the dismissals to a restructuring prompted by alleged acts of sabotage, while unions called it victimisation.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) sided with the unions. NLC president, Joe Ajaero, accused Dangote of forcing workers into company-controlled unions, violating their freedom of association and undermining collective bargaining. The NLC accused Dangote of breaching
Nigerian law and ILO Conventions 87 and 98, both ratified by Nigeria, which guarantee freedom of association and the right to organize.
The move is significant given the Dangote Group’s expanding footprint across Africa. Its operations include petroleum refining and cement plants in Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The group also runs a fertiliser complex exporting across the continent and has ambitions in power generation. The group employs tens of thousands of workers across Nigeria and has operations in more than a dozen African countries. Yet for many of those workers,
the right to join a union has remained violated.
The company network will bring together unions organising across Dangote’s African operations. It will facilitate information-sharing and mutual solidarity. The network will also support campaigns in countries where the group is newer and union presence is
thinner.
Oluchi Amaogu, NUPENG assistant general secretary, said:
“We are stronger when we stand together. This meeting marks an important step towards building a united trade union voice across Dangote operations. Through solidarity, organisation and determination we can strengthen workers’ rights and ensure that growth
and development deliver benefits for working people.”
Tom Grinter, IndustriALL director for chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, rubber and materials, said:
“The Dangote Group is an industrial conglomerate that spans the continent and cannot be allowed to violate workers’ rights. This is why unions are jointly organizing.”
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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