Taking COSATU Today Forward, 26 June 2025 #NUMCongress2025
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #NUM’s concludes its 18th elective National Congress at Boksburg #NUMCongress2025 #CosatuCallCentre number is 010 022 2590 #DecentWork #DecentLives #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 June 2025
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU presented its submission on the Division of Revenue, Appropriation and Public Sector Pension and Related Payments Bills to Parliament
- South Africa
- COSATU Gauteng welcomes the unveiling of Gauteng’s first Municipal Economic Review and Outlook and the release of the Lifestyle Audit Report
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- UN Financing for Development Conference 2025: Compromiso de Sevilla falls short on international solidarity
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU presented its submission on the Division of Revenue, Appropriation and Public Sector Pension and Related Payments Bills to Parliament
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator), 25 June 2025
COSATU presented its submission on the 2025/6 Budget’s Division of Revenue (allocations to provincial and local government), Appropriation (allocations to national government) and Public Sector Pensions and Related Payments Bills to Parliament’s Select Committee: Appropriations.
The Federation welcomes the positive increase in funding for critical and economic infrastructure, with an additional R34 billion bringing total infrastructure investments over the next three years to a total of R1.03 trillion.
This includes roads (R402bn), water (R156bn), plus investments in rail, ports, and four new hospitals in Limpopo and the Westen Cape and 13 000 university beds.
The R12.7 billion investments in Metro Rail will be a boost to 10 million workers across the metros, providing them more affordable and faster transport to get to work.
Key to ensuring the successful rollout of the infrastructure programme is for law enforcement organs to ramp up the fight against corruption, the construction mafia and cable theft syndicates, as well as vandalism. Parliament will need to hold a tight leash over departments, municipalities and State-Owned Enterprises to make sure targets as well as preferential and local procurement commitments are met at all times.
The Federation welcomes the additional funding to help rebuild frontline public services crippled by years of reckless neo-liberal austerity budget cuts, including R29 billion for education and R28.9 billion for health as well filling key frontline vacancies including 800 doctors, 4 000 police officers, nurses and teachers, plus rolling out of Grade R to 700 000 learners as per the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act. The over R2.1 billion allocated towards laying the foundations for the National Health Insurance is a welcome sign amidst the onslaught of attacks on government’s efforts to rollout universal access to public healthcare.
However, though these are positive initial steps, they are far from enough to undo years of brutal budget cuts that have crippled public services.
The additional posts whilst welcome, are far too little to reverse the drastic decline in the ratios of teachers to learners, nurses and doctors to patients, police officers to communities amongst others. Much more must be done to capacitate the state, in particular law enforcement.
Whilst COSATU supports allocations to local government, including R2.3 billion to roll out prepaid electricity meters, we are deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating state of many municipalities and basic services, including 16 struggling to pay staff in the North West, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern and Eastern Cape Provinces and more failing to pay pension funds their due amounts.
Interventions to stabilise and rebuild local government, including a new funding model and a shift towards the District Development Model must be accelerated.
We cannot afford the further collapse of many municipalities and basic services.
COSATU commends government for moving away previous inexplicable cuts to the Presidential Employment Programme which has provided invaluable experience to the unemployed with an R8.8 billion boost, including R3.7 billion for the Teaching Assistants, plus R22 billion from the UIF for job creation. Whilst these are not enough for the 12 million unemployed, they are a welcome step forward.
We are pleased that government heeded COSATU’s call for an additional R4 billion to boost SARS’ efforts to tackle tax and customs evasion.
This is critical to ensuring the state has the resources needed to rebuild frontline public services, stimulate economic growth, tackle unemployment and provide relief for the poor.
Further support for SARS must be prioritised over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.
Issued by COSATU
COSATU Gauteng welcomes the unveiling of Gauteng’s first Municipal Economic Review and Outlook and the release of the Lifestyle Audit Report
Louisah Modikwe (Provincial Secretary, COSATU Gauteng 26 June 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Gauteng welcomes the unveiling of the Municipal Economic Review and Outlook (MERO) by the MEC of Finance and Economic Development, Lebogang Maile. COSATU views this development in the province as a right step towards redefining and building a responsive local government.
The cornerstone of MERO - planning, budgeting and service delivery enhancement will go a long way to intervene in poor planning, budgeting and spending by municipalities. MERO as defined provides a province-wide municipal level economic snapshot including GDP data by region, employment, inequality, poverty, education, health, housing infrastructure, and crime, and as a result will enable COSATU to monitor planning, budgeting and spending per municipality to ensure alignment with MERO findings. COSATU will also engage the MEC to get a better understanding of MERO.
The Federation has also noted and welcomes the release of the lifestyle audits of senior managers in the Gauteng Provincial Government by Premier, Panyaza Lesufi. This move by the Premier reaffirms his commitment as per State of the Province Address to conduct second phase lifestyle audits targeting Accounting Officers in GPG departments and entities.
Whilst this action is appreciated and welcomed, COSATU would like to see a fair process of dealing with those who have failed the lifestyle audit. The Premier will be engaged with the view to understand the attitude of those who failed lifestyle audits towards service delivery and whether the failure is related to corruption.
Issued by COSATU Gauteng
International-Solidarity
UN Financing for Development Conference 2025: Compromiso de Sevilla falls short on international solidarity
23 June 2025
The long-awaited Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) will take place in Sevilla, Spain, 30 June to 3 July, to set the global agenda for development finance.
The outcome document, or ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’, endorsed on 17 June by governments marks a significant moment in the global discourse on development finance. As the world confronts interconnected crises, the need for a robust and inclusive financial framework has never been more pressing.
The Compromiso presents some steps forward, but it also reveals critical shortcomings that must be addressed to put democracy and social justice at the heart of the international financial architecture.
Strengths of the Compromiso de Sevilla:
Welcome focus on decent work: The commitment to invest in productive sectors, decent job creation, formalisation and skills development are a positive step. To maximize impact, this ambition will need to be matched with clear implementation strategies and a strong push for the formalization of the informal economy, particularly of undeclared and misclassified workers in enterprises.
Financing for social protection: The document includes a measurable target for developing countries to increase social protection coverage by two percentage points per year, a commitment advocated by the International Labour Organization and supported by experts like UN Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter. This target aims to address the significant gaps in social protection coverage, with nearly half of the world’s population currently lacking any form of coverage. Additionally, the document highlights the need for predictable, adequate, and uninterrupted funding for social protection during shocks and crises, recognizing the importance of international financing mechanisms to support low-income countries in closing their social protection financing gaps.
Advancing fair taxation: There is a commitment to promote tax progressiveness within the framework of gender-just tax systems, improve international tax transparency, and ensure fair taxation of corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Crucially, it supports efforts to strengthen international tax cooperation, including through engagement in the process towards a UN Framework Convention on Tax—an important step toward curtailing tax avoidance and building a more inclusive and equitable global tax system.
Despite these positive aspects, several critical issues are inadequately addressed or absent.
Areas of concern of the Compromiso de Sevilla:
Weak debt architecture reform: With 3.3 billion people living in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on healthcare or education, one of the most glaring shortcomings is the lack of a robust mechanism for debt restructuring. Due to the systematic blocking from Global North countries, the document proposes an intergovernmental process to promote voluntary principles on sovereign borrowing and lending, but stops short of endorsing the need for a permanent multilateral debt resolution mechanism. This omission leaves developing countries vulnerable to unsustainable debt burdens without a clear path to relief.
Limited commitment to Official Development Assistance (ODA): While the document reaffirms the importance of ODA, it lacks concrete and time-bound commitments to increase aid levels or to ensure that aid is used effectively. In the context of dramatic aid cuts, this vagueness is alarming.
Better criteria to make private finance work for development: Private capital was supposed to move SDGs financing ‘from billions to trillions’. The bad news is, as the World Bank’s Chief Economist recently admitted, that it “all turned out to be a fantasy”. Still, the Compromiso de Sevilla calls for more private capital mobilisation and blended finance in development, with vague references to the monitoring and accountability mechanisms to align private finance with the SDGs.
Urgent pending issues
To transform the Compromiso de Sevilla into a truly transformative framework for development finance, the following actions are essential:
Establish a UN-led debt mechanism: This should include clear principles for debt relief and to ensure that countries facing unsustainable debt burdens can access fair and transparent processes.
Increase and ensure effective ODA: Commit to specific targets for increasing ODA and establish mechanisms to ensure that aid is used effectively, with a focus on transparency and accountability.
Keep private finance accountable: Governments’ development policies cannot depend on corporate interests. When private companies manage public funds (for example development cooperation funds), they must promote decent job creation and be in line with ILO standards, due diligence and responsible business conduct. That is why we need a binding UN treaty on multinationals and human rights.
Conclusion
ITUC Secretary General Luc Triangle said: “This document falls short because there is a lack of international solidarity, specifically in the reform of the international financial system that is far too small. Debt relief was and is the key for many countries to finally be able to invest in healthcare and education. Until this is fundamentally reformed, progress towards social justice will be unforgivably blocked.
"The ITUC’s call is clear: finance must serve people and planet – not profit and power."
“Workers around the world demand democratic and transparent institutions capable of delivering the New Social Contract. It is time to turn principles into practice, and pledges into policies. The 2nd World Summit for Social Development will be our next opportunity to show ambition and put social justice at the heart of sustainable development.”
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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