Taking COSATU Today Forward, 11 February 2026
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY #HandsOffCuba #HandsOffVenezuela #Back2SchoolCampaign continues… #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
11 February 2026
“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!
- MEC Sipho Hlomuka condemns bullying incident at Eastwood Secondary School
- South Africa
- COSATU welcomes R22 billion infrastructure investments by ACSA
- Presidency on phone call between President Ramaphosa and President Putin
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- PAME: Class Collaboration Unmasked: The Leadership of the General Confederation of Greek Workers Exposed
- Argentina: ITUC and TUCA stand with unions against regressive labour reform
- MUZ wins wage deal from Lumwana, demands more for Zambian communities
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
MEC Sipho Hlomuka condemns bullying incident at Eastwood Secondary School
10 Feb 2026
The MEC for Education in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr. Sipho Hlomuka, has strongly condemned a bullying incident that occurred at Eastwood Secondary School in the uMgungundlovu District on Wednesday, 04 February 2026, where a learner was filmed while he was assaulted by another in the presence of other learners.
The MEC has expressed deep concern over the incident, reiterating that bullying, intimidation, and all forms of violence within school environments are unacceptable and undermine the fundamental right of learners to a safe and dignified learning environment.
Following the incident, Circuit Management officials, SGB, together with the South African Police Service (SAPS), visited the school yesterday to conduct investigations and to provide the necessary support to the affected learners, educators, and the broader school community. A case has since been opened with SAPS, and investigations are currently underway. In addition, a Department meeting will be held to determine the way forward.
In line with Departmental policy and pending the outcome of the investigation, the alleged perpetrators have been suspended from school as a precautionary measure to safeguard learners and allow due process to take its course. MEC Hlomuka has called on parents, educators, and communities to work collaboratively with the Department to instil discipline, respect, and positive values among learners.
“Our schools must remain safe havens for learning and development. Acts of bullying have no place in our education system. We commend the swift intervention by school management, Circuit officials, and SAPS, and we will ensure that appropriate action is taken once the investigation has been finalised,” said MEC Hlomuka.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education remains committed to strengthening school safety, protecting learner welfare, and responding decisively to all forms of learner misconduct.
Enquiries:
Mr Muzi Mahlambi:
Head
of Communication
Cell: 082 519 1420
Mr
Mlu Mtshali
Media Liaison Officer
Cell: 082 088 5060
Issued by KwaZulu-Natal Education
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
COSATU welcomes R22 billion infrastructure investments by ACSA
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 11 February 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the nearly R22 billion infrastructure investments planned by the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) over the next five years.
These investments will include upgrading OR Tambo Airport’s cargo terminal, adding a new runway and expanding domestic departures at Cape Town Airport as well as other investments for airports in eThekwini, Buffalo City, eGqeberha, George, Mangaung and Upington.
This overhaul of our international and domestic airports will be a further positive boost to attracting tourists to South Africa and thus helping and sustaining more than a million jobs linked to the hospitality industry. Tourism is one of the largest employment sectors in the economy and with great potential to expand.
It is critical that ACSA ensure that the construction jobs generated during this programme will be supplied by South African workers and that the companies involved abide by our labour laws at all times, in particular the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Similarly, the construction and other materials, machinery and equipment must also be sourced from local manufacturers.
We hope that these long overdue upgrades will address the fuel shortages experienced at times at some airports during 2025, as well as open up additional flight slots for domestic and international airlines, thus boosting tourism and travel.
ACSA’s steady performance affirms that State-Owned Enterprises with competent management and strategic investments can not only survive and thrive but can also be enablers of inclusive growth and job creation in the economy.
The positive news emanating from ACSA as well as South African Airways gives hope that the African National Congress led government’s renewal project is gaining momentum.
Issued by COSATU
_______________________
Presidency on phone call between President Ramaphosa and President Putin
10 Feb 2026
President Ramaphosa discusses peace and South Africa-Russia cooperation with President Putin
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed South Africa’s ongoing support to diplomatic and peaceful efforts aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This is in line with South Africa’s long stated position during talks with both sides that all wars end through negotiations.
In a telephone call held today, 10 February 2026, President Ramaphosa received a briefing from President Vladimir Putin on the situation in Ukraine and on Russia’s commitment to a diplomatic solution.
On the bilateral relationship, President Ramaphosa welcomed the engagements with Russia aimed at advancing the development of a mutually beneficial trade and investment framework within the Russia-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership.
The two leaders also discussed cooperation in key international fora such as BRICS and the G20.
President Ramaphosa and President Putin pledged their support to the process of returning South Africans fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. In this regard, teams from both sides will continue their engagements towards the finalisation of this process.
Media enquiries:
Vincent
Magwenya - Spokesperson to the President
E-mail: me...@presidency.gov.za
Issued by The Presidency
International-Solidarity
by WFTU HQ, 10 February 2026
The revelations about the embezzlement of 2 million euros by Giannis Panagopoulos, the president of the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE), an ETUC/ITUC member, are the culmination of a long course of deep decay and degeneration of the leadership of the highest-level trade union organization of private-sector workers. A course that has consistently supported the strategy of capital, the EU, and governments of every political shade, governments that found in the leadership of the GSEE their most willing allies for promoting anti-people policies and hundreds of anti-worker laws.
The leadership of the GSEE has written yet another black chapter in its history, a history of betrayal of workers’ struggles that would take volumes to record. A peak act of betrayal was the historic abolition of the 8-hour workday and the handing over of the National General Collective Labor Agreement to the state and employers. For these, this leadership not only did nothing, but mocked workers’ struggles, claiming that “strikes have had their day.”
No one can forget that while hundreds of unions, federations, and regional unions were organizing the fight against plans to impose a 13-hour workday, the leadership of the GSEE was secretly negotiating with the minister of labor and the industrialists a disgraceful agreement on Collective Labor Agreements. An agreement tailor-made for capital, which legalizes poverty, entrenched low wages, and the dismantling of workers’ rights.
They also openly opposed strikes and struggles over the crime in Tempi, attempting to whitewash the criminal responsibilities of the state and business groups.
For years, the unions affiliated with PAME have exposed the real role of employer- and government-aligned trade unionism. A tough battle has been waged, and continues, to change the direction of the movement and free it from the deadly embrace of the state and employers.
We confronted the mechanisms of fraud and manipulation of union elections set up by “labor bosses” to falsify workers’ will, silence militant voices, and keep the GSEE as a service office for employers—using for this purpose funds that were supposedly intended for workers’ training.
One such mechanism turned out to be, among others, the GSEE Institute of Labor, which was used as a Trojan horse to push anti-worker policy into the unions, advance the co-optation and buy-off of trade unionists, and “implement” programs that “secured” fabricated balances in non-existent unions.
This is not only a Greek phenomenon. A few years ago, the rot of bribery and degeneration of European social democracy (ETUC) was exposed, as it backed reactionary provisions with blood-stained Qatari petrodollars and other lobby funds. The president of the GSEE is a member of the Executive Committee of the ETUC and of the General Council of the ITUC.
These are the labor bosses; this is the president of the GSEE. Those who build careers on the exploitation of workers. Those who, when workers denounced them as a trade-union mafia, found a protective shield in the New Democracy government, which sent riot police to guard them and keep them in their seats. Just as now, the New Democracy government and the minister of Labor tried to secure them a role and existence through the disgraceful agreement abolishing collective labor agreements.
It’s a leadership that belongs to the government, the industrialists, the EU, and their political parties!
Every worker must think carefully. Unions are not the private estate of these types; they are the home of the workers. Absence from active participation leaves space for employer- and government-aligned operatives to act within the trade union movement.
The hopeful shift in balances of power taking place in dozens of unions, federations, and regional unions is the hope, and it must continue.
Let the struggle intensify against the poison of social partnership and class collaboration. Let the struggle grow for the contemporary needs of workers against a system of war, poverty, and exploitation.
Class-oriented unions, not employer-controlled unions!
_________
Argentina: ITUC and TUCA stand with unions against regressive labour reform
10 February 2026
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) express their solidarity with affiliated trade union centres in Argentina as they mobilise against sweeping labour reforms.
The government of far-right President Javier Milei wants to dismantle essential protections for working people and undermine trade union rights. Congress is due to debate the proposal from 11 February.
“These measures are an attack on workers’ and trade union rights, and therefore on democracy. They will do nothing to create decent employment or promote formalisation.”ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle
“On the contrary, they will deepen inequality, increase informality, and worsen the country’s economic and social crisis. This is yet another ideological attack on working people by the government that must be stopped.”
The government’s proposals include:
New restrictions on the rights to strike, hold assemblies and engage in collective bargaining – in violation of international labour standards ratified by Argentina, including ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
Easier dismissals, which would increase job insecurity.
Deregulation of working hours and paid leave, breaching constitutional protections.
Defunding the social security system, leaving pensioners and retirees more vulnerable.
TUCA General Secretary Rafael Freire added: “This bill represents an unprecedented rollback of regulation that violates the principle of progressiveness and would push society back to a pre-constitutional state. We call on the international trade union movement to stand in solidarity with Argentine trade unions in defence of fundamental freedoms. Attacks on trade union rights are attacks on democracy itself. True economic recovery is not possible without social justice. Real social consensus is based on respect for the rights of workers and their unions, not on their destruction.”
TUCA and the ITUC stand firmly with the CGT, the CTA-A and the CTA-T in opposing this regressive package, which represents a major assault on trade union and democratic rights.
_________
MUZ wins wage deal from Lumwana, demands more for Zambian communities
3 February, 2026
The Mine Workers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ), an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, has secured a victory in its latest round of collective bargaining with Lumwana Copper Mines, a key subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation. The parties finalized an agreement in Lusaka granting unionized workers a 13 per cent wage increase, effective for the year.
The Mine Workers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ), an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, has secured a victory in its latest round of
collective bargaining with Lumwana Copper Mines, a key subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation. The parties finalized an agreement in Lusaka granting unionized workers a 13 per cent wage increase, effective for the year.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on 31 January, George Mumba, MUZ general secretary, pressed the company to go beyond wage adjustments. He advocated for the implementation of living wages to levels sufficient to support a decent standard of living for workers
and their families alongside firmer commitments to environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives that deliver tangible benefits to mining affected communities.
“This agreement reflects the strength of collective bargaining and the unity of our members. We need robust provisions for occupational health and safety, comprehensive social protection, greater job security and wages that reflect the true cost of living.”
Mumba emphasized. MUZ has over 1,100 members at Lumwana. Further, he argued that sustainable mining practices, which prioritise
community welfare and environmental stewardship, are essential if the industry is to contribute meaningfully to national development in Zambia rather than only extracting resources for export.
The agreement arrives at a pivotal moment for Lumwana. Barrick Gold has committed to a substantial capital outlay of US$2 billion to fund the Super Pit Expansion Project, a major initiative designed to transform the operation into a Tier One copper mine. This
ambitious programme, already under way, aims to double annual copper output to approximately 240,000 tonnes through the construction of a significantly enlarged processing plant with a capacity of 50 million tonnes per annum. Such investments are being boosted
by favourable global copper demand which is driven by the energy transition and electrification trends.
However, the wage deal also highlights broader challenges facing workers on the Zambian copper belt. While the 13 per cent rise represents a meaningful gain for workers translating, in some cases, to increases of between K1,100 ($56) for lower-paid workers
and K2,500 ($127) for higher earners it occurs against a backdrop of inflationary pressures and rising living costs that have eroded purchasing power across the economy.
Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining, said:
“In a mining industry where commodity price volatility and geopolitical uncertainties loom large, Zambia’s copper sector must pay living wages. Sustainable mining depends not only on production volumes and capital inflows, but also on fostering industrial relations that support job security and community development.”
______________________________
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