Taking COSATU Today Forward, 24 March 2026 #CosatuFeministSchool2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #CosatuFeministSchool enters Day 2 at Benoni #GenderTransformativeChange#GenderStruggle #ClassWar #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
24 March 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize at every workplace and demand respect for labour rights Now!
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU National Gender Elective Conference
- South Africa
- Diggersrest Timber Company – apartheid ideological reasoning in modern day South Africa
- Minister Solly Malatsi notes allegations regarding decision by SABC to terminate the Face of the Nation programme
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Lee Cheuk-yan: “I have no hostility in my heart, only love. I hope the people can obtain the rights and happiness they deserve”
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU National Gender Elective Conference
Zanele Sabela, COSATU Spokesperson, 17 March 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is set to convene its 2nd National Gender Elective Conference from 26 to 27 March as part of the organisation’s three-year accountability cycle.
The Gender Office Bearers and Gender Structure will report on the implementation of resolutions and programmes adopted at the Gender Conference in 2022. The Conference takes place at a time of sharpened gender inequalities in the workplace and in society, particularly for women workers, workers with disabilities and LGBTQI+ workers.
The conference will deliberate on the following:
- GBV and sexual harassment, including the implementation of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 190 and Recommendation 206, which relate to the elimination of violence (including GBV) and harassment in the workplace.
- Care Economy and Care Workers’ Rights
- Gender and climate change: Examining the impact on workers with disabilities.
- Engendering collective bargaining, in particular advancing parental rights and maternity protection.
- Ensuring implementation of COSATU’s gender policies and organisational power.
Alliance partners, ANC Women’s League, SACP and SANCO will deliver messages of support.
The conference will also elect National Gender Office Bearers who will assume responsibility to ensure that the Federation’s work of striving for gender equality is taken forward.
The details of the National Gender Elective Conference are as follows:
•
Date: 26
& 27 March
• Time: 9am
• Venue: Anew Hotel, OR Tambo, 1 Country St, Lakefield, Benoni.
All members of the media are invited to the conference.
RSVP to mam...@cosatu.org.za or non...@cosatu.org.za
Issued by COSATU
Zanele Sabela (COSATU Spokesperson)
Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639
Email: zan...@cosatu.org.za
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
Diggersrest Timber Company – apartheid ideological reasoning in modern day South Africa
Hangwani Mashao, COSATU Limpopo Provincial Secretary, 23 March 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Limpopo Province is deeply disturbed by the events at Diggersrest Timber Company whose factory is in the Goerges Valley in Limpopo Province.
It is quite disturbing that in the 21st century democratic South Africa, there are employers whose practices appear to still hanker for the fossilised policies of the horrible apartheid system.
Workers in the company have been denied the most basic of benefits that workers in South Africa are now accustomed to getting, as result of the post -apartheid labour relations framework which millions of workers in this province and in the entire Republic fought so hard to gain. These include:
- Workplace safety,
- Retirement plans,
- Sound labour relations practices at the workplace
- Compliance with labour legislation
While we are aware that all are these challenges that can be addressed by processes available to workers, the company uses those processes to frustrate workers at every turn even on matters that can easily be resolved by engagement. Currently 45 workers are going through a disciplinary process which puts in question their right to organise themselves and demonstrate about their plight, which is a right enshrined in the South African Constitution and the Labour Relations Act.
This happens while all the shop stewards are suspended from work.
COSATU will continue to support its Affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) to ensure the gains of workers to collective bargaining and sound labour relations practices are not undermined by reactionary employers who still long for the dreadful days of apartheid.
We call upon the company to engage CEPPWAWU to address the mound of challenges that have been raised by workers in the company.
Issued by COSATU Limpopo
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Minister Solly Malatsi notes allegations regarding decision by SABC to terminate the Face of the Nation programme
22 Mar 2026
The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, has noted the allegations regarding the SABC’s decision to terminate the Face of the Nation programme and its response to the matter.
The allegations are worrying given the risk of purported political pressure on the editorial independence of the SABC, which is sacrosanct. The SABC, under the current board and executive leadership, has made significant strides in restoring the editorial independence of the public broadcaster, following years of pandering to political pressure.
Therefore, the allegations of political pressure risk reversing all the progress that has been made to date, if not thoroughly dispelled with facts.
“I have written to the chairperson of the SABC board to request a detailed report outlining the reasons for the discontinuation of the Face of the Nation programme. It is important we get all the facts to ensure that the matter has been dealt with fairly and without compromising the principles of robust journalism and editorial independence at the SABC," Malatsi concluded.
Media enquiries : DCDT Media Officer
Ms
Tlangelani Manganyi
E-mail: tman...@dcdt.gov.za
Cel: 060 886 4670
Issued by Department of Communications and Digital Technologies
International-Solidarity
Lee Cheuk-yan: “I have no hostility in my heart, only love. I hope the people can obtain the rights and happiness they deserve”
23 March 2026
Trade unionist and democracy campaigner Lee Cheuk-yan has spoken in public for the first time since his imprisonment in 2021.
Testifying at his ongoing national security trial, the General Secretary of the disbanded Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) offered a powerful defence of democracy, civil society and fundamental rights.
Lee used his testimony to reaffirm his lifelong commitment to workers’ rights and democratic freedoms. He told the court that the founding of the disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China (HKA), and his participation in it, were driven by the brutal crackdown by the Chinese government on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989. Lee described this moment as shaping his life’s mission.
The prosecution argues that the slogan of the HKA, which included “end one-party dictatorship”, constitutes subversion. The prosecution tried to establish that Lee bears hostility to the Chinese Communist Party government, and uses social issues to smear and incite hatred.
The veteran trade union rights campaigner rejected this: “Ending one-party dictatorship is one of the necessary prerequisites for moving towards a democratic China... and only then can we talk about ‘building a democratic China.’ Ending one-party dictatorship doesn’t mean ending Chinese Communist Party rule.”
“Ending one-party rule’ means that people can enjoy the rights mentioned in the constitution… freedom of speech, association and press are the ‘three pillars’.
“I have no hostility in my heart, only love… hoping that the Communist Party will undergo reform so that the people can obtain the rights and happiness they deserve.”Lee Cheuk-yan
Free Lee Cheuk-yan
Lee has been imprisoned since 2021 under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, accused of “inciting subversion of state power” for his peaceful activism. His case is emblematic of a broader crackdown on trade unionists and pro-democracy voices.
ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “Lee Cheuk-yan’s words in court are a testament to courage and conviction. Speaking after years of enforced silence, he has reminded the world that the struggle for democracy and workers’ rights in Hong Kong continues. His prosecution is an injustice, and he must be released immediately.”
The ITUC, alongside a global coalition of unions and human rights organisations, is supporting this petition and campaigning for the release of Lee Cheuk-yan and human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung, who faces the same charge, as well as all those detained for exercising their fundamental rights.
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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