Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 17 February 2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #Cosatu affiliates in the public service are mobilizing workers for the 24th Feb lunchtime pickets and 26th Feb National Day of Action against #GEMS’s unaffordable member’s contribution increase…. #ClassSolidarity #Cosatu40 #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #CosatuCallCentre 010 002 2590 #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
17 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!
- POPCRU on GEMS Increases
- South Africa
- COSATU cautiously welcomes positive 1.3% drop in unemployment in Quarter 4 of 2025
- SADTU Students’ Chapter Statement on SACE imposing monthly subscription fee on unemployed educators
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- 𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐂-𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐮𝐛𝐚. 𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐨 𝐍𝐎𝐖!
- Empowering African trade unions, enforcing rights with human rights due diligence
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
POPCRU on GEMS Increases
Taking Members Step by Step on GEMS Developments
Comrades and members,
We want to take you through the developments around the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) so that every member understands how we arrived here — and what we are now doing about it.
*Over
the Years: GEMS Has Become an Albatross Around Workers’ Necks*
Over time, GEMS has become increasingly unaffordable.
• 2025: 13.4% contribution increase
• January 2026: 9.8% increase
• April 2026: Further 9.5% adjustment
• Total increase over two years: 23.2%
*Meanwhile:*
• Inflation is around 3.6%
• Salary increase for 2025/26 was 5.5%
• Salary increase for 2026/27 is between 4%- 6%
This means medical aid costs are rising almost three times faster than inflation and far above our wages.
This is wage erosion through the back door.
*Why
GEMS Was Founded*
GEMS was established through PSCBC Resolution 1 of 2006.
*It was created to:*
• Provide affordable and accessible medical cover
• Protect lower- and middle-income public servants
• Promote social solidarity and risk pooling
• Expand healthcare access — not burden workers
It was never meant to operate like a commercial enterprise.
*How
GEMS Has Deviated from Its Founding Mandate*
Over time, GEMS has drifted away from its purpose.
*We have seen:*
• Repeated above-inflation increases
• Costly outsourcing of administration and managed care
• Weak accountability and poor consequence management
• High executive and board remuneration
• Leadership instability
• Failure to redesign benefits to protect lower-income members
• Tanzanite members being forced to pay extra for private healthcare access
Even the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) recommended only a 3.3% increase for 2026 — yet GEMS imposed 9.8%.
Instead of fixing governance and cost problems, GEMS transfers the burden to workers.
*What
We Have Done to Resolve the Situation*
*Over the years, POPCRU and organised labour have* :
• Raised concerns at the PSCBC
• Engaged the GEMS Board repeatedly
• Tabled practical proposals to curb fraud, waste and financial leakage
• Proposed cost-containment measures
• Demanded improved governance and accountability
Unfortunately, these engagements have produced no meaningful change.
The unilateral implementation of increases shows clear disregard for collective bargaining and social dialogue.
*Given
All These Issues — What Are We Now Doing?*
After numerous fruitless consultations, we are moving into a phase of action.
*Our demands are clear:*
• Immediate withdrawal of the January and April 2026 increases
• A full forensic audit into governance, procurement and finances
• Review of outsourcing contracts and administrative costs
• Alignment of executive and board pay with public service norms
• Implementation of labour’s anti-fraud proposals
• Genuine engagement at the PSCBC
• Executive accountability
If GEMS continues to deviate from its mandate, we will support a review of PSCBC Resolution 1 of 2006 and explore alternatives that give public servants freedom of medical scheme choice with government subsidy protection.
*
Our Joint Programme of Action*
POPCRU stands shoulder to shoulder with our COSATU sister unions — DENOSA, NEHAWU, SADTU, SAMATU, PAWUSA and SAEPU.
*National
Day of Action*
*26
February 2026*
*GEMS
Offices, Pretoria*
Provincial build-up programmes are underway across the country.
*This struggle is about:*
• Defending workers’ wages
• Protecting collective bargaining
• Restoring GEMS to its founding purpose
• Ensuring public servants are not forced to choose between healthcare and survival
*Final Message to Members*
GEMS exists because of workers.
It was created to serve workers — not exploit them.
Public servants have endured enough.
We are now entering a phase of firm and united defence of our rights, wages and dignity.
*We stand firm.*
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
COSATU
cautiously welcomes positive 1.3% drop in unemployment in Quarter 4 of 2025
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 17 February 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the positive drop in unemployment announced by Stats SA with the expanded definition of unemployment decreasing by 1.3% to 41.1% and the narrow definition falling by 0.5% to 31.4% for Quarter 4 of
2025.
The increase in employment by a net 44 000 jobs bringing the total number of working South Africans to over 17.1 million is hopeful news.
It is critical that this momentum is maintained and accelerated for Quarter 1 of the new year where there is normally a decrease in employment as the festive season jobs bump comes to an end. South Africa is long overdue for some good news.
Whilst welcoming nearly a 1.3% decrease in unemployment over the past quarter, we dare not be complacent. A 41.1% unemployment rate remains a dangerous ticking time bomb that cannot be sustained.
Much more needs to be done by the African National Congress led government, in particular to further capacitate the frontline public and municipal services that the working class and businesses depend upon, to inject additional stimulus needed to unlock economic
growth including expediting the infrastructure investment programme, and to ramp up public employment programmes and relief for the poor and the unemployed.
Particular support must be provided by the state to struggling businesses and sectors due to the 30% tariff duty imposed on South African exports to the United States, increasingly unaffordable electricity and other economic challenges.
Such support must come in the form of tax relief, industrial subsidies and fixing the mind-numbing delays at the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employment Relief Scheme.
It is critical that the 2026/27 Budget and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework due to be tabled at Parliament on 25 February respond to these challenges and provides a bold stimulus package to take the economy to the 3% growth rate needed to slash unemployment.
The private sector must be compelled to end the investment strike and invest in government bonds, critical economic infrastructure and the industrial, manufacturing and agricultural jobs rich economic sectors.
Unemployment is the single greatest threat to the nation. Tackling it must be our collective focus, and every possible resource and intervention mobilised to defeat it. South Africans do not expect overnight miracles, but we need to see consistent progress,
in particular a 1% decrease in unemployment each quarter.
This will provide the momentum the economy needs and give hope to the working class and society.
Issued by COSATU
__________________________
SADTU Students’ Chapter Statement on SACE imposing monthly subscription fee on unemployed educators
17 February 2026
It is with profound outrage that we respond to the South African Council for Educators’ (SACE) longstanding decision to impose a monthly subscription fee on unemployed graduates who aspire to be teachers. This is an egregious policy that not only undermines the aspirations of our youth but also reveals a profound disconnect between SACE and the realities faced by those who wish to dedicate their lives to education.
At a time when South Africa is grappling with high unemployment rates and economic instability, particularly among the youth, SACE’s insistence on charging aspiring teachers to remain registered with the council is not only shortsighted but profoundly unjust. This long standing practice places an additional financial burden on young graduates who have already invested their time and resources into their education, further perpetuating cycles of exclusion and inequality within our educational system.
It is unacceptable that the very institution that should champion educators chooses instead to impose financial barriers that threaten to prevent capable and passionate individuals from entering a profession that is crucial to our nation’s future. This policy sends a clear message: that access to teaching, a vital component in our society’s development is reserved for those who can afford it, rather than being a right for all who are qualified and willing to contribute.
Moreover, this decision raises critical questions about SACE’s commitment to ethical governance and its role as a steward of educational integrity in South Africa. By prioritizing subscription revenue over the support and development of future educators, SACE not only jeopardizes the quality of education but also tarnishes its own reputation as a leading authority in the field.
We demand immediate and decisive action from SACE to rescind this unjust policy and to implement initiatives that genuinely support and uplift our educators, especially those at the beginning of their careers. The future of education in South Africa hinges on the ability to attract and nurture talented individuals who are passionate about teaching, regardless of their economic background.
It is time for SACE to align its policies with the transformative vision of our country, ensuring that every aspiring educator has the opportunity to thrive without the shackles of financial burden. We call on all stakeholders, government, civil society, and the public to join us in holding SACE accountable for creating a more inclusive educational landscape that embraces the ambitions of our youth rather than stifling them.
#NO JOB, NO FEE!
#STOP UNFAIR SACE LEVY
Issued by National Coordinator
Xolani Dube
International-Solidarity
𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐂-𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐮𝐛𝐚. 𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐨 𝐍𝐎𝐖!
17 February 2026
The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), representing over 18 million working men and women across Africa, expresses firm solidarity with the people and workers of #Cuba.
For over six decades, the United States has imposed an economic embargo, isolation, and propaganda policies against Cuba — policies that harm ordinary workers, families, and communities who bear no responsibility for political disputes.
We condemn the rhetoric and doubling-down approach of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. These are naked colonial and neocolonial actions that will further harm Cuba and other nations that refuse to bow to narrow, isolationist neoliberal tendencies.
Economic strangulation is not diplomacy. When policies deepen poverty, restrict access to energy, healthcare, food, and essential goods — they violate justice, solidarity, and our shared humanity.
ITUC-Africa
calls on the International Community to:
End
its dangerous silence
Uphold
international law and order
Promote
humanitarian cooperation, constructive dialogue, and peaceful engagement
Cuba deserves the right to self-determination. Workers across Africa stand shoulder to shoulder with the Cuban people in their struggle for dignity, justice, peace, and social progress.
𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗼. 𝗡𝗢𝗪!
Read
the full statement:
www.ituc-africa.org
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Empowering African trade unions, enforcing rights with human rights due diligence
12 February, 2026
Human rights due diligence (HRDD) is fast emerging as a key organizing instrument for trade unions across Africa, particularly those operating in global value chains that stretch from Global North consumers to Global South extractive frontiers. A roundtable held on 9 February on the margins of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town brought unions together with the Competence Centre for Human Rights Due Diligence (CCHRDD) to explore how organized labour might capitalise on this framework.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the imperative for HRDD is especially acute given the region’s outsized role in supplying minerals critical to the energy transition, electronics and renewable energy industries. The continent holds major reserves of cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese and nickel whose demand has surged amid decarbonisation efforts worldwide. Yet extraction remains beset by entrenched human-rights risks: forced community displacements, violations of workers and human rights, environmental degradation, adverse health effects on local populations and in some instances, ties to conflict financing or organized crime.
HRDD draws its foundation from the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), endorsed in 2011, which impose on companies a responsibility to respect human rights via ongoing processes of identification, prevention, mitigation and remediation of adverse impacts. Sector-specific guidance, notably the OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, has proved influential for tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold in conflict zones such as Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The mining landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa presents a mixed picture. Large-scale operations often controlled by multinationals from China, Europe, Canada and elsewhere face persistent criticism over inadequate community consultation, water and soil pollution, hazardous working conditions, poverty-level wages, gender-based violence and harassment, and suppression of union activity, including breaches of freedom of association and collective bargaining. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), prevalent in countries such as the DRC, Ghana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, worsens these vulnerabilities with child labour, toxic mercury exposure and exploitation by criminal networks.
Data from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Transition Minerals Tracker underscore the scale of the problem. For example, between 2010 and 2024, it recorded 178 human-rights and environmental abuses linked to transition minerals in Africa which is more than 20 per cent of the global total of 835 cases. The DRC alone accounted for over half of Africa’s allegations, mostly at cobalt and copper sites.
Unions, including IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in the DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are pressing hard for rigorous HRDD implementation. Their advocacy emphasises scrutiny of corporate disclosures, risk mapping and the adoption of national action plans on business and human rights still absent in most African countries. They call for binding rules to secure fair-trade terms, greater local beneficiation, living wages and environmental stewardship.
Recent regulatory shifts are reshaping HRDD. The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), now in force, mandates HRDD for large companies operating in or exporting to the EU, including human-rights and environmental impacts throughout value chains. This compels mining firms and their Sub-Saharan suppliers to strengthen processes, undertake audits and offer remediation or face exclusion from the European market. Complementary EU measures on batteries, deforestation and conflict minerals add further layers of scrutiny to African-sourced minerals.
However, challenges remain formidable: weak governance, corruption, limited enforcement capacity and opaque supply chains all impede effective due diligence. In high-risk settings such as conflict zones or informal gold sectors in Zimbabwe, HRDD frequently falls short of eradicating harms.
At the roundtable, Kelly Fay Rodriguez of the CCHRDD announced the launch of a dedicated project in the DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe to support mine workers in critical minerals value chains. The initiative aims to ensure that emerging international due-diligence laws and trade policies deliver gains for labour rights, with particular focus on freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Established in 2025 by UNI Global Union, IndustriALL Global Union, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Germany’s DGB trade-union confederation, the CCHRDD exists to harness HRDD frameworks in ways that reinforce workers’ rights especially the enabling rights of union organization and bargaining across global value chains.
The meeting closed on a note of cautious optimism: HRDD offers mining companies a tool for risk mitigation while presenting unions and host societies with leverage for more inclusive development.
As Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL’s mining director, put it:
“Effective implementation of HRDD supported by stronger national frameworks, active union engagement, and international accountability is essential if mineral wealth is to translate into genuine economic progress rather than perpetuating patterns of extraction without equitable returns.”
______________________________
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