Taking COSATU Today Forward, 14 July 2025
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #CosatuCallCentre number is 010 002 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
14 July 2025
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- SADTU holds Online Political School: Trade Unionism in South Africa
- South Africa
- COSATU welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement of an independent judicial commission of inquiry into allegations surrounding the SAPS leadership
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Just Transition manifesto: garment workers demand a fair, worker-led shift
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
SADTU holds Online Political School: Trade Unionism in South Africa
Invitation to attend the SADTU Online Political School on this Facebook page and YouTube (SADTU ONLINE TV) on Wednesday, 16 July 2025.
Time: 13:00
Topic: Trade Unionism in South Africa
COSATU welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement of an independent judicial commission of inquiry into allegations surrounding the SAPS leadership
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 13 July 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of an independent judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of serious criminal activities and collusion by some of the most senior leaders and officials of the South African Police Service (SAPS), Judiciary and other key organs of state security.
These allegations against some of the most senior leaders and officials of our law enforcement institutions are extremely worrying and threaten to undermine the trust the public has in them. This is something that South Africans, in particular working-class communities who have borne the brunt of our high levels of crime, can ill afford.
President Ramaphosa’s appointment of an independent judicial commission of inquiry is the only sober and rational path to deal with these serious matters, to provide a safe environment for witnesses to give testimony, and for those accused to have the opportunity to respond to such accusations. It is critical that all persons with evidence provide it to the commission.
The Commission needs to be given the full support and resources it requires to fulfill its mandate. It must move with speed to attend to these extremely concerning matters.
It will be equally critical for the executive and law enforcement to act upon the Commission’s recommendations once concluded. South Africans have grown weary of commissions and correctly expect to see decisive action resulting from it.
The Federation welcomes the President’s providing the Minister for Police, Mr. Senzo Mchunu, with a leave of absence to enable him to attend to matters affecting him at the Commission, and to provide himself with the opportunity to clear his name.
We are confident that the appointment of Professor Firoz Cachalia as acting Minister for Police, will help provide the SAPS with the stability it requires during this period.
It is important to appreciate that these matters weigh heavily on the ordinary members of the SAPS, Judiciary, Correctional Services and other law enforcement organs who risk their lives on a daily basis in defence of the Constitution and to protect the lives
and rights of every South African.
Ultimately, we must emerge with a law enforcement cleansed of such allegations of criminality and one that is given the tools it needs to win the war against crime and corruption.
Issued by COSATU.
International-Solidarity
Just Transition manifesto: garment workers demand a fair, worker-led shift
10 July, 2025
Workers must not be forced to bear the costs of the green transition. That was the resounding message from the third workshop on decent jobs and social protection for a Just Transition in the textile and garment supply chain, held on 7 July, by the ITUC’s Just Transition and Climate department, IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll European Trade Union.
The workshop, part of a three-year project supported by the Laudes Foundation, aims to strengthen trade union strategies for a fair and inclusive transition in the garment and textile industries. In a sector that is facing very unique challenges, due to unfair purchasing practices by brands, precarious and informal work and very different levels of social dialogue in different countries it is highly problematic that the transition of workers is not thought along transition strategies.
This coincides with the needs for urgent action on adaptation strategies addressing the accelerating impacts of climate change
on workers, including heat stress and floods. In that context, unions are demanding that workers’ voices be central in shaping a just, sustainable future.
This session focused on shaping the Just Transition manifesto for the textile and garment sector, which will set out clear, collective demands from unions and serve as a framework for workers' participation in the green transition. Scheduled for launch in October,
the manifesto is being developed through a broad consultation process with union affiliates.
Rhaki Sehgal, from ITUC, presented the key demands of the manifesto. She emphasized that a Just Transition must be democratic, transparent and worker-led, with social dialogue at every level.
Key demands include:
Decent work for all, including informal and home-based workers
Fair, environmentally sound regulation of textile waste trade
Zero tolerance for gender-based violence
Gender equity and safer, more resilient workplaces
Strong brand accountability across supply chains
ITUC project officer, Amalia Hammarlund, said:
“A sustainable future for the sector requires improving working conditions, creating new jobs in recycling and circular economies and ensuring that workers — particularly women — are protected, empowered and included in decision-making.”
Union affiliates echoed these concerns, warning that the climate transition is already worsening existing challenges in the sector.
They stressed that the transition must not sacrifice workers’ rights or livelihoods. Affiliates called for:
An end to shifting the burden of sustainability onto workers
Involvement of workers in transitions strategies through effective and meaningful social dialogue at all levels
Mandatory living wages and safer workplaces
Gender inclusion across all climate and labor frameworks
Specific protections for informal, migrant and vulnerable workers
They also emphasized the need for the manifesto to recognize the varying realities across regions, such as differing energy
sources, carbon intensities and stages of industrial development.
Participants firmly agreed that workers must have a central role in driving the Just Transition. As one affiliate declared, “Nothing about us without us.” They called for stronger regional engagement, political focus and solidarity to ensure that the green
transition works for all — not just for corporations and governments.
IndustriALL energy and Just Transition director Diana Junquera-Curiel said:
“Workers must not pay for the green transition. Too often, brands and employers shift the costs of climate action onto workers—through job losses, lower wages, or unsafe conditions. This is unacceptable. The responsibility for a greener economy must be shared fairly by governments, employers, and brands, not placed on those already most vulnerable. We need a democratic industrial transformation—one that puts workers at the center, with strong social dialogue, collective bargaining and protections for all, including informal and migrant workers.”
industriAll Europe general secretary, Judith Kirton-Darling, said:
“Transition policies are often designed without taking into consideration the impacts of workers. Sustainability and circularity strategies aimed at making textiles more durable, reusable, repairable and recyclable, are often designed without taking the impact on workers and working conditions into consideration. More dramatically, critical legislation on corporate sustainability due diligence and corporate sustainable reporting that unions fought for have been the target of the EU’s simplification drive. Workers are extremely concerned by these developments and call on governments and brands to prevent a race to the bottom and offer unions a seat at the table for a just and sustainable transition in the textile supply chain.”
The Just Transition Manifesto will be a crucial tool to push for fair, worker-centered climate and environmental action in the textile and garment industry, ensuring that workers are protected, empowered and heard in every step of the green transition.
______________________________
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