Taking COSATU Today Forward, 19 March 2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #SAMWU concludes its 13th National Congress in Mbombela… #WorkerControl #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
19 March 2026
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU National Gender Elective Conference
- South Africa
- SACP message of heartfelt condolences to Barayi family on demise of children of Elijah Barayi, the late stalwart of our liberation struggle
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- South African Communist Party Statement on bombing of Lebanon by apartheid Israeli regime
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU National Gender Elective Conference
Zanele Sabela, COSATU Spokesperson, 17 March 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is set to convene its 2nd National Gender Elective Conference from 26 to 27 March as part of the organisation’s three-year accountability cycle.
The Gender Office Bearers and Gender Structure will report on the implementation of resolutions and programmes adopted at the Gender Conference in 2022. The Conference takes place at a time of sharpened gender inequalities in the workplace and in society, particularly for women workers, workers with disabilities and LGBTQI+ workers.
The conference will deliberate on the following:
- GBV and sexual harassment, including the implementation of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 190 and Recommendation 206, which relate to the elimination of violence (including GBV) and harassment in the workplace.
- Care Economy and Care Workers’ Rights
- Gender and climate change: Examining the impact on workers with disabilities.
- Engendering collective bargaining, in particular advancing parental rights and maternity protection.
- Ensuring implementation of COSATU’s gender policies and organisational power.
Alliance partners, ANC Women’s League, SACP and SANCO will deliver messages of support.
The conference will also elect National Gender Office Bearers who will assume responsibility to ensure that the Federation’s work of striving for gender equality is taken forward.
The details of the National Gender Elective Conference are as follows:
•
Date: 26
& 27 March
• Time: 9am
• Venue: Anew Hotel, OR Tambo, 1 Country St, Lakefield, Benoni.
All members of the media are invited to the conference.
RSVP to mam...@cosatu.org.za or non...@cosatu.org.za
Issued by COSATU
Zanele Sabela (COSATU Spokesperson)
Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639
Email: zan...@cosatu.org.za
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
SACP
message of heartfelt condolences to Barayi family on demise of children of Elijah Barayi, the late stalwart of our liberation struggle
Mbulelo
Mandlana, SACP Head of Media, Communications and Information,
14 March 2026
The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its heartfelt message of condolences to the Barayi family on the death of the daughter and son of the late South African liberation struggle stalwart, Comrade Elijah Barayi.
The two Barayi siblings, daughter Connie Barayi and son Mzimkhulu Barayi, died within a short period of each other, with Mzimkhulu dying on 9 March on the day of his sister’s funeral, after hospitalisation.
The SACP also conveys its message of condolences to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which Comrade Elijah Barayi led as its founding president from 1985.
Comrade Elijah Barayi led Cosatu until 1991, contributing to the federation’s growth in the fight for better working conditions and social rights, and retired from all his political work in 1993. He dedicated his life to the service of the working class until he breathed his last in 1994.
As the SACP, we are grateful to the Barayi family for giving to our liberation struggle one of their best sons to serve the working-class struggle against capitalism, whose contribution helped to usher our country into a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
In tribute to both Connie Barayi and Mzimkhulu Barayi, the SACP will continue to play its vanguard role in the uniting and strengthening of the working class towards the dismantling of the exploitative capitalist system and building socialism.
ISSUED
BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
International-Solidarity
South African Communist Party Statement on bombing of Lebanon by apartheid Israeli regime
Mbulelo Mandlana, SACP Head of Media, Communications and Information
Thursday, 19 March 2026
For the past week, the apartheid Israeli regime has initiated and keeps escalating a campaign of violence against the state of Lebanon. This campaign is not merely limited to bombing of particular sites of importance to Lebanon utilising missiles as primary weapons but has now included physical presence of Israeli troops on the ground in southern Lebanon indicating what can be characterised as grave intent for sustained attacks and perpetuation of conditions of war.
Over a thousand people have been killed in this spate of violence, with the likelihood that this number may increase due to the intense nature of the violence by Israeli forces.
These attacks represent Israel’s latest attempt to create an additional front in the military attacks towards Iran and Palestine, thereby deepening the regional crisis and justifying its continued militarisation of the region. This strategy is intended to achieve its imperialistic ambitions, including the annexation of Lebanon in pursuit of territorial expansion and its vision of creating “Greater Israel” which includes takeover of the West Bank and other states in the gulf region in contravention of international law.
It is clear that the imperialist US and apartheid Israeli regimes are the sole culprits in the ongoing destabilisation of the Middle East and have no moral compass whatsoever. Examined within its broader context, the war on Lebanon and Iran constitutes a part of the US’s latest imperial activities aimed at asserting its power through military means in the face of its declining economic and diplomatic influence within the international relations ecosystem. On these grounds, this war has neither legal basis nor moral ground.
The attacks on Lebanon are as unjustified as the attacks on Iran and the continued occupation of Palestine. As the South African Communist Party (SACP), we condemn the war in Lebanon. We continue to call for an end to this violence. The end to violence in Iran and Lebanon includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, the cessation of the bombing campaign in both Lebanon and Iran.
The SACP calls for continued solidarity with the people of Lebanon. We continue to commit to mobilising progressive voices in South Africa and across the world to resist imperialist aggression in West Asia and everywhere else where we witness imperialist aggression.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
______________________________
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