Taking COSATU Today Forward, 6 February 2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #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
6 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!
- DITSELA Institute invites Educators, Skills Development Officers in all federations at the 2026 Worker Education Program Launch
- African Unions invited to Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Africa Regional Quarterly Virtual Meeting
- South Africa
- COSATU welcomes South Africa's full accession to Afreximbank
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Tunisian Unions Reveal the Real Cost of Private Solar Energy in Tunisia - and Why Public Solar is a Better Option
- Statement by the USB Firefighters’ Union in Support of Northern Department Firefighters
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
DITSELA Institute invites Educators, Skills Development Officers in all federations at the 2026 Worker Education Program Launch
January 2026
Attention: Educators & National/Provincial Office Bearers Responsible for Education
Dear comrades and colleagues,
Ditsela Programme 2026 Theme: “Educate, Engage, Empower for Resilient and Inclusive Labour Movement”
You are invited to the launch of the 2026 Ditsela Programme
Date: Thursday 12 February 2026
Time 10h00 – 12h00
Venue: Ditsela Offices
Johannesburg Office
21 Marshall Street
4th Floor t
Johannesburg
We would like to urge educators to make every effort to ensure that office bearers responsible for education are available for this meeting. In 2025 we tried to include office bearers in all strategic activities so that they could engage with Ditsela on the priorities for workers’ education; this has proved to be a very successful way of communicating with our constituency about workers’ education.
In this meeting we will be sharing:
▪ New developments for 2026 Programme
▪ Recruitment processes to Ditsela Programme
▪ Required documentation for the application
Note: Ditsela would like affiliates to share their Union programme as well to establish areas of collaboration.
Please confirm your attendance by completing the reply slip to vero...@ditsela.org.za
Fax: 011 492-0302
Yours in the continued struggle for power through education.
Khanyisile Khanyi
Programme Manager
_____________________
African Unions invited to Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Africa Regional Quarterly Virtual Meeting
Dear Comrades
SAVE THE DATE: 10th February 2026
Africa Regional Quarterly Virtual Meeting
Please join us for a virtual meeting of African unions and their allies on:
February 10th, 2026. Time: Johannesburg. South Africa/16:00, Tunisia/15:00.
Find your local time here:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
Anyone that wants to attend must please register. All registrants will receive a zoom link. RSVP:
Please register HERE. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/g1hf5pbiS5WPSMXDB92Ziw#/registration
Interpretation: to be confirmed! Dependent on the need and resources required.
Why This Meeting?
Join the meeting to listen to updates from Tunisia, South Africa, and Ghana regarding renewable energy costs, the unbundling and privatization of energy institutions, and the role of private sector participation, amongst other things.
See article attached on the Tunisia case study of the cost of renewable energy.
Kind Regards
Suraya Jawoodeen
on behalf of the TUED team
COSATU welcomes South Africa's full accession to Afreximbank
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 06 February 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes South Africa’s full accession to the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). Afreximbank is a leading developmental financial institution tasked to promote intra-African trade across the continent.
South Africa’s accession to full membership unlocks $13 billion or over R206 billion in financing for an economy badly needing stimulus to overcome the sluggish 1% growth it has been stuck at for the past two decades.
This will be a massive boost to efforts to reach the 3% economic growth needed to tackle our dangerously high 42.4% unemployment rate.
COSATU applauds the tireless work by the Minister for Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr. Parks Tau, the Ministry and Department to secure this valuable coup for South Africa’s efforts to stimulate economic growth.
Whilst appreciating this important achievement by the African National Congress led government, it is critical these funds be used strategically to boost agriculture, manufacturing and other job intensive sectors with great export and growth potential.
They should be used to support expanding export opportunities for South African goods, investments in the economy’s industrial capacity, infrastructure and clean energy.
They should be utilised to boost Proudly South African companies with a commitment to hiring local workers, supporting emerging businesses, and procuring and producing locally produced goods. They must not be used to import cheap products into South Africa.
Priority should be given to companies who embrace Worker or Employee Shareholder Ownership Programmes (ESOPs).
It is equally important that the Department ensure full transparency with regard to how the financing is spent to prevent any space for corruption.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
Tunisian Unions Reveal the Real Cost of Private Solar Energy in Tunisia - and Why Public Solar is a Better Option
5 February 2026
A recently published research paper, authored by the Working Group for Energy Democracy of Tunisia, is on the TUED website and will be the subject of a February 10th TUED Africa Regional Quarterly meeting (RSVP here), details of which can be found at the
end of this bulletin.
The paper shows that public solar would be far less expensive than the current approach, which privileges IPPs while imposing excessive costs on the Tunisian people. Under current legislation, private solar PV projects obligate the public power company to buy
all the electricity produced at a fixed price according to the proposed capacity. Efforts to reduce energy prices were in vain because the public structure was required to purchase electricity at a higher fixed price (for example, 48 USD/MWh instead of 40
USD/MWh for 10 megawatt projects under the average price of electricity sold to the public structure). In other words the private approach has been burdening public budgets in order to create investor profits that could otherwise have been avoided if the public
utility had completed these projects.
The Working Group describes itself as “a praxis-focused space inside the General Federation of Electricity and Gas (FGEG), an affiliate of the UGTT national centre of Tunisia. The working group holds discussions, promotes political education, explores alternatives
to the neoliberal energy system, and advances research by and for the working class by linking the trade union struggles with those of communities, social movements, and civil society.”
Debunking Pro-Private Energy Claims by the Government
In late 2025, the government of Tunisia began operating and connecting private photovoltaic plants to the electricity grid. The government claimed that the private plants’ efficiency outperformed public ones. In fact, the pro-private sector energy policies
of the government have been a clear failure, barely reaching 200 megawatts of the government’s goal to install 1000 additional megawatts of renewable energies in 2025.
The private photovoltaic plants have not been economically efficient either. As the Working Group explains, the real cost of photovoltaic plants must include the multiple privileges and incentives provided by the government to the private sector. In other words,
the private sector under-delivers on its promises while simultaneously pocketing public funds.
Titled "The Real Cost of Electricity Produced From Renewable Energies”
the Working Group’s paper compares the different types of private electricity production and explores the impact of the new energy legislation on the real cost of electricity produced from renewable energies. The paper looks specifically at the adoption
of a fixed tariff regime bypassing a request for proposals that might create space for small plants.
Private sector lobbyists and the government use cherry-picked and misleading numbers to justify the privatization of renewable energies but, as the paper argues, it is illegitimate to compare the full cost of producing electricity through the public utility
with the selling price of electricity generated by subsidized private solar PV producers.
Drawing on official figures and legislative analysis, the paper’s findings support trade union arguments for public electricity– not as a matter of ideological conviction but rather of data-based, logical cost-analysis. The paper’s findings reflect favourably
on the efficiency of public electricity production as well as the advantages of implementing renewable energy projects through a public company. As the Tunisian trade union movement has long argued, the obligation of public companies is to provide the people
of Tunisia with affordable electricity – not to produce profits for private pockets at the public’s expense.
Although the report is data-driven, it also identifies that a battle of ideologies and narratives is taking place. The report aims to counter neoliberal energy approaches by fact-checking and debunking their arguments while also favoring public approaches and
arming unions with the necessary support for their point of view.
“The ideological-cultural battle, unlike the military battle, must focus on the strengths of the enemy and therefore must mobilize the most important tools at our disposal.” - Antonio Gramsci
For further background, see TUED Bulletin 163, Threatening to Strike, Energy Unions in Tunisia Win a Victory for Public Energy and Worker Rights.
Join us! February 10: TUED Africa Region Quarterly Meeting
Join TUED on Tuesday, February 10th for the first Africa Regional Quarterly Meeting of the year. More than 80 trade union members and allies have already registered from at least a dozen African countries.
Date: February 10th, 2026
Time: 15:00 Tunisia // 16:00 South Africa
Find your local time here
RSVP: Please register RSVP
here
Languages: Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in Arabic, French and English, with the possibility of additional languages, according to registrants’ needs and available resources.
Tunisian comrade Elyes Benammar of the General Federation of Electricity and Gas (FGEG), and member of the Working Group for Energy Democracy, will present on the significance of the research paper, The Real Cost of Electricity Produced From Renewable Energies.
The meeting will also include brief interventions from comrades in Ghana and South Africa on similar case studies. All comrades are welcome. We hope to see you next Tuesday!
In solidarity,
TUED Team
___________________
Statement by the USB Firefighters’ Union in Support of Northern Department Firefighters
by WFTU HQ, 02 Feb 2026
Statement by the USB Firefighters’ Union in Support of Northern Department Firefighters
The Italian USB Firefighters’ Union expresses its total, militant and unreserved support for the struggle being waged in Lille by firefighters and their union representatives.
What is happening in Lille is not an isolated case: it is the result of policies across Europe that attack public emergency services, worsen working conditions, reduce staffing levels and put both workers and the population at risk.
In the face of these attacks, mobilisation is not only legitimate but necessary. The struggle being waged in Lille is a just, determined and exemplary one. It is fully in line with what USB is fighting for in Italy against precariousness, chronic lack of resources, exploitation of staff and the deterioration of the public fire service.
Trade union solidarity is a weapon.
National borders must never divide those who defend the same rights and the same mission: saving lives and ensuring collective safety.
USB Vigili del Fuoco stands firmly alongside its colleagues in Lille and reaffirms its willingness to strengthen the convergence of struggles at European level until real change is achieved.
United we fight. United we win.
U.S.B. Vigili del Fuoco
Italy
______________________________
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