Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 28 January 2025
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘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
28 January 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!
- NEHAWU KZN to submit a memorandum of demands to National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank
- NUM applauds ESKOM workers for the 300 days without load shedding
- NUM rubbishes BCAWU disinformation regarding the CIRBF Collective Agreement
- Minister Enoch Godongwana invites 2025 budget tips
- South Africa
- COSATU welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa's assenting to the long-awaited Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Bill
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Fighting anti-union legislations in South East Asia
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
NEHAWU KZN to submit a memorandum of demands to National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank
Ayanda Zulu, NEHAWU KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Secretary, January 28, 2025
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in KwaZulu-Natal will submit a memorandum of demands to both National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank. This action is precipitated by the dubious decision of the Regulatory Authority to initiate proceedings of liquidating Ithala Soc Limited.
Ithala Soc Limited currently has more than 400 workers employed and NEHAWU is the sole union organising in this institution. To date all these workers have not received their salaries for January 2025 which was supposed to be paid on the 20th.
Details of the program of action:
Date: 29 January 2025
Time: 12h00 – 13h00
Venue: South African Reserve Bank, 8 Dr A B Xuma St, Central, Durban, 4001
As NEHAWU, we remain resolute in defence of our members as they fight for a living wage and better working conditions. We will continue to wage a relentless struggle to protect the interest of workers and defend collective bargaining at all material times.
END
Issued by NEHAWU KwaZulu-Natal Secretariat Office
For more information, please contact: Ayanda Zulu (Provincial Secretary) at 081 758 5199 or email: Aya...@nehawu.org.za or Ntokozo Nxumalo (Provincial Deputy Secretary) at 0815255983 or email: Nto...@Nehawu.org.za
Visit NEHAWU website at www.nehawu.org.za
____________________
NUM applauds ESKOM workers for the 300 days without load shedding
Khangela Baloyi, NUM Energy Sector Coordinator, 28 January 2025
The National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) applaud all Eskom workers for improving the performance of power stations. The 2023/2024 financial year was characterised by the systematic failure of Eskom resulting in 329 days of load shedding.
This was because poor leadership concentrated more on unbundling the organisation by any means necessary.
The NUM is on record affirming that Eskom as an Engineering company needs Engineers and not Lawyers at the executive level. Eskom's operational and financial performance was at its lowest during this period. The NUM further stated that the problem of load-shedding was self-inflicted.
During this period of madness, Eskom decided not to maintain coal-fired power stations and alluded that these machines were old. They also started to implement a program to close power stations of which they managed to close the Komati power station. We always knew that engineering machines if well maintained will function regardless of age.
The CEO during that time declared that Eskom was a dead horse, it could not be saved. Today under the leadership of the engineers, the dying horse has been revived. The new leadership managed to turn the company around.
They have achieved 300 days without load shedding.
This was done by implementing plant maintenance programs which were executed with a high level of discipline and rewarding excellent performance. The team reduced the unplanned losses from 18 000MW in May 2023 to 10 600MW in November 2024.
As much as we appreciate the above good performance, we still have concerns with the obsession by the government to unbundle and destroy public service institutions including Eskom.
Eskom under the instruction of the government has implemented the unbundling or legal separation of the transmission business from the 1st of July 2024.
__________________
NUM rubbishes BCAWU disinformation regarding the CIRBF Collective Agreement
Tebatso Mokoena, NUM Construction Sector Coordinator, 28 January 2025
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is extremely disturbed by the disinformation published on social media by BCAWU regarding the extension of the Construction Industry Retirement Benefit Fund (CIRBF) Collective Agreement.
The CIRBF is a brainchild of the NUM, SAFCEC and BCAWU which at the time of establishing the fund for the industry was voluntary.
In 2014, When the Bargaining Council for Civil Engineering was established for the industry by the same stakeholders. We changed the agreement from being voluntary to being compulsory in the industry. We have consistently extended the agreement every 5 years through the Department of Employment and Labour. The fact is that this agreement remains part and parcel of the conditions of employment in the industry.
When this agreement was to expire on the 31st of August 2023, as expected parties to the council engaged for the extension. There were several issues raised by the employer parties about the extension one of them was the governance issue raised of the appointment of the Administrator of the Fund which NUM raised with the FSCA, the Bargaining Council and other stakeholders. This led to us as trade unions and employers not agreeing on the appointment of the administrator.
In the same year, we sought the Department of Employment and Labour’s intervention which they referred us to the Labour Relations Act of 1995 Section 32A. The department advised that any of the parties can apply for an extension. We then agreed that any of the parties could apply. BCAWU did apply for an extension and it was granted. If the NUM had opposed the extension of the agreement, BCAWU as a minority union would not have extended the agreement.
If the other parties had opposed an extension of the agreement, the minister may not have extended the agreement. The Labour Relations Act allows the majority rule on decision making within the labour market.
We then agreed that the CIRBF Collective Agreement would form part of the wage negotiations of 2024, which it did. Again parties engaged on the same issues raised and parties could not reach an agreement on the matter.
We agreed to extend the wage agreement for 1 year on the basis that even if the agreement could be extended for 12 Months this was not the ideal situation for parties which have the interest of the members and the industry at hand.
NUM agreed to write to the Department of Employment and Labour to request for extension hence the agreement was extended.
We thank the Minister of Labour and Employment and her team and we hope that parties will find new ways to implement changes to this agreement in the next 12 Months. The bargaining Council of the Civil Engineering industry remains the custodian of this agreement.
NUM remains committed to changing the current conditions of the CIRBF collective agreement with a long-term extension which will protect and make the pension fund contribution compulsory.
We are not a trade union of grandstanding like BCAWU.
We urge our members and potential members not to believe the propaganda used by BCAWU as it is pure lies. Members should be aware that BCAWU refused to sign the current wage agreement for workers to receive their increases on the 1st of September 2024.
We request that BCAWU not play in the social media space with our name. Our interests are our members. We remain focused on preparing for the upcoming wage negotiations which are to start in two months’ time.
__________________
Minister Enoch Godongwana invites 2025 budget tips
28 Jan 2025
2025 budget tips – Make your voice heard
The
Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, invites South Africans to share their suggestions on the Budget.
Minister Godongwana will deliver the National Budget Speech in February 2025. The budget allocation aims to strike a balance between growing the economy and supporting the vulnerable amid limited resources. People may submit views on:
government spending priorities
addressing a large budget deficit
stabilising State-Owned Entity finances
energy funding solutions
tax revenues
debt sustainability
municipal finances
any other economy-related topics
Minister
Godongwana looks forward to your contributions.
Submissions can be sent to the National Treasury using this link: 2025
Budget Tips.
Please keep contributions concise and to the point, not longer than 300 words.
Tag us on our social media accounts using the hashtag #TipsForMinFin and #Budget2025:
X - Treasury_RSA
LinkedIn - National Treasury RSA
Tik Tok - @TreasuryRSA
Facebook - National Treasury RSA
Closing date for submissions: 10 February 2025
Issued by National Treasury
COSATU welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa's assenting to the long-awaited Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Bill
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 28 January 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assenting to the long-awaited Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land (PDAL) Bill. The Federation engaged extensively on the Bill with the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform and Organised Business at Nedlac. We support the now assented to Act in full and urge its speedy promulgation into effect.
The Act is a long overdue intervention to secure the nation’s food security and jobs of farmworkers and across the value chain. South Africa is fortunate to have a well-developed and highly diversified agricultural sector that ensures the nation’s food requirements in most instances. The development of this sector has taken centuries and the sweat and toil of farmworkers to build and must be jealously guarded.
Agriculture and the food value chain provide employment for more than 1 million workers and is one of the nation’s largest and most strategic economic sectors. The sector is under threat for a variety of reasons and has seen many farmers, emerging and commercial, battle to survive and often simply forfeiting or losing their farms when they can no longer afford to pay their debts. Many municipalities in desperation for funds, rezone agricultural land to private developers building shopping malls etc., due to the higher rates such developments yield.
If agricultural land is not preserved for food production, the nation’s food security will be at risk, as well hundreds of thousands of badly needed jobs. If we continue to allow agricultural land to be rezoned recklessly by clueless Councillors or planning officials enticed by bribes from developers, we will collapse any efforts at effecting land reform. This is a key developmental planning Act whose implementation must be prioritised.
Key progressive provisions in the Act include:
- A Registry and system for grading agricultural land to determine what land is most suitable for which type of crops and livestock. This will help guide emerging farmers and support their endeavours. It is key that all levels of government have an accurate database of arable agricultural land if they are to preserve it for agricultural development.
- Provincial Agricultural Sector Plans that will be key to ensuring provincial departments plan properly and lead agricultural development initiatives. These will enable society to hold the different spheres of government accountable.
- Protected Agricultural Areas will compel the relevant spheres of government to preserve highly arable land, in particular the Departments responsible for Agriculture and Land.
- Rezoning Processes empowering the Minister and government to protect and preserve agricultural land and play an oversight and authorising role over municipalities’ agricultural land rezoning processes.
- Advisory Appeal Panel, whilst COSATU supports the establishment of the Panel, it is critical representation from organised labour be included to ensure the voice of agricultural workers is felt in the Panel’s work.
- Inspectors need to be empowered to issue compliance orders to ensure the progressive objectives of the Act are implemented and offending municipalities are held accountable and dealt with.
COSATU supports the PDAL Act due to its progressive and planning provisions. It will help ensure the nation’s food security, national sovereignty, and a key economic and export sector with over 1 million jobs.
We urge Government to expedite its implementation and ensure the relevant organs of state are fully capacitated to do so.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
Fighting anti-union legislations in South East Asia
28 January, 2025
Trade unionists from South East Asia gathered virtually on 22 January to exchange updates on labour law reform and commit to opposing anti-union legislation threatening workers' rights. 50 unionists from IndustriALL affiliates in Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines and Thailand shared updates.
IndustriALL Indonesian affiliates have fought the Omnibus Law since its announcement in October 2019. Through legal challenges, the constitutional court deemed it conditionally unconstitutional, upheld 21 of 71 union petitions and ordered the government to enact a new law within two years.
IndustriALL Asia Pacific exco co-chair and the chief of international department of FSPMI Prihanani Boenadi said:
“The international solidarity actions through expert presentation at constitutional courts had been very helpful as judges took the statements seriously. We will continue to advocate for union-friendly labour laws before the government introduces the new law within two years.”
The outsourced workers provision in Omnibus Law which permits indefinite contract periods has been reversed, but the similar labour-only contracting feature has remained unchanged in the Philippine Labour Code.
After then President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the Security of Tenure Bill in 2019, four new bills were introduced in the Philippine Congress to prohibit contractualization, allowing tripartite councils to decide outsourcing and regulate job contractors with at
least PHP10 million (US$178,571) in capital.
Paul Gajes, legislative officer of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and deputy speaker Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza said they will push for the Security of Tenure Bill by using ILO and ITUC reports on worker rights violations, leveraging international trade agreements and building coalitions with national and global unions.
In Thailand, the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT) has been campaigning for ratification of ILO Convention 87 and 98 for three decades. The confederation initiated an ILO 8798 Convention driving network consisting of 26 unions and worker organizations in 2023. The network engaged European Union trade representatives and IndustriALL Europe several times, demanding the inclusion of ratification of the two ILO conventions in the EU-Thailand free trade agreement negotiations.
In contrast, the enforcement of Malaysia’s Trade Union (Amendment) Act in September 2024 means trade unions can organize workers from multi-sectors and are allowed to form a second union to compete with each other democratically. IndustriALL Malaysia council and the labour law reform coalition welcome the greater freedom of association and commit to the unfinished journey of law reform as many provisions of the labour laws are still deemed anti-unions.
ITUC Asia Pacific senior director of organizing and projects, Patuan Samosir, said:
“While significant progress has been made in some areas, workers continue to face challenges related to legal protections, working conditions and union rights. Strengthening labour laws, promoting worker rights and empowering trade unions will be key to improving the lives of workers in the region.”
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:
“We are living in a time of class struggle. The global attack on trade unions and workers' rights leads to more exploitation. We must mobilize workers to support the struggles against anti-union reforms in the four countries, let’s give support to each other, including our brothers and sisters who are struggling in Cambodia, Myanmar and Korea.”
______________________________
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