Taking COSATU Today Forward, 25 June 2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #Cosatu wishes #NEHAWU 13th National Congress successful deliberations… #WorkerControl #CosatuNationalActionAgainstHighCostofLiving #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
25 June 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- Media Advisory-Media Accreditation: NUM Central Committee Meeting (29 June – 2 July 2026)
- South Africa
- COSATU presented its submission in support of the Special Pensions Amendment Bill to Parliament
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- COSATU Calls for Review of SACU Revenue Sharing Formula
- Deadly workplace accidents expose systemic safety failures in India
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics#ClassWar
Media
Advisory-Media Accreditation: NUM Central Committee Meeting (29 June – 2 July 2026)
Livhuwani Mammburu, NUM National Spokesperson, 23 June 2026
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will convene its Central Committee (CC) meeting from 29 June to 2 July 2026 at the Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre in Boksburg.
This year’s Central Committee is organized under the theme: “Consolidate Worker Control To Build A Road Map To Socialism.”
Key Speakers & Guests:
The event will feature addresses from high-profile leaders and key industry regulators, including:
• His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa
• Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa – Minister of Electricity and Energy
• Gwede Mantashe – Minister of Minerals and Petroleum Resources
• Nomakhosazana Meth – Minister of Employment and Labour
• Sihle Zikalala – Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
Fraternal Messages of Support
Leadership from the following alliance partners and international labour organizations are also scheduled to deliver messages of support:
• Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) President, Zingiswa Losi
• African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General ,Fikile Mbalula
• South African Communist Party (SACP) General Secretary, Solly Mapaila
• South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO)
• World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)
• IndustrALL Global Union
• Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI)
Accreditation Process
Members of the media are urged to apply for accreditation timeously. Please note that the NUM will not be able to accommodate last-minute or late accreditation requests due to security protocols.
To apply, please email your details (Full Name, Media House, Designation, and Contact Number) to the following officials:
• Livhuwani Mammburu (NUM National Spokesperson)
◦ Cell: 083 809 3257
◦ Email: lmam...@num.org.za, mamm...@gmail.com,
• Luphert Chilwane (NUM Media Officer)
◦ Cell: 083 809 3255
◦ Email: lchi...@num.org.za
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
COSATU presented its submission in support of the Special Pensions Amendment Bill to Parliament
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 24 June 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) presented its submission in support of the Special Pensions Amendment Bill to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance.
This is a progressive and long overdue Bill that correctly seeks to ensure that special pension fund recipients receive the full benefits, protections and rights due to them.
The Special Pensions Act was introduced in 1996 to ensure that patriotic South Africans who made heroic sacrifices to ensure its liberation from apartheid and who due to years spent underground, in prison and in exile were never able to have a normal career or contribute to a pension or provident fund, would be covered by the Special Pension and able to retire in comfort and dignity.
The proposed amendments to the Act by the African National Congress led government through Treasury, are common sense and seek to correct challenges experienced in its implementation, as well as to keep pace with improvements to other public sector pension funds and amendments to the pension and marital laws.
COSATU supports these progressive amendments that provide for:
- Persons who were not able to submit their applications for the Special Pensions on time to do so.
- Appeals for declined applications to be reconsidered with accompanying motivations and supplementary supporting information.
- Deceased members’ spouses or partners and dependent children to continue to receive the benefits due to lost loved ones.
- Recognising members’ obligations to spouses or partners and dependent children, across different marital regimes, e.g. civil, religious or customary.
- Funeral benefits to ensure members can be buried with the necessary dignity.
The Federation is heartened by this timely and badly needed Bill. It is an affirmation that our humanity must be anchored upon how we care for the elderly, in particular those who have given so much to the nation.
Given that most of the Special Pension recipients are elderly, it is critical that Parliament expedite its passage into law. Time is of the essence.
We urge Parliament to ensure its adoption before rising in December 2026 to enable the President, Mr. MC Ramaphosa to assent to it and its promulgation into law by April 2027.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
COSATU Calls for Review of SACU Revenue Sharing Formula
Zanele Sabela, Cosatu Spokesperson, 24 June 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes South Africa’s hosting of the 9th Summit of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre 2 this Friday, 26 June. President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to open and address the gathering.
Established in 1910, SACU is the oldest functioning customs union. It enables free movement of goods across borders without customs duties or quantity restrictions among its member states - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.
The Summit is SACU’s highest decision-making structure, providing strategic and political direction as well as overseeing the implementation of programmes and priorities.
Members countries apply a uniform tariff and trade rules to goods imported outside the region. They pool together all customs and excise duties collected across the region and share them among the members as per set revenue-sharing formula.
In solidarity with the people of Eswatini, COSATU believes this Summit is an opportune time to review the formula and take into account good governance and the human rights record of its members states when determining the split of shared revenue.
The review is long overdue. How does South Africa’s government justify to its citizens the continued subsidisation of the Swati Royal family’s exorbitant lifestyle while its own citizens are ravaged by poverty and benefit nothing from this arrangement.
We cannot in good conscience continue to prop up an undemocratic regime that routinely attacks, imprisons and even murders democracy, human rights and trade union activists through SACU revenues.
Eswatini must embrace democracy and human rights or be cut off. It is long overdue that the South African and indeed other governments in the region bring this rogue regime to heel and force it to engage its citizens in good faith on a peaceful transition to democracy.
This is the 21st century not the 1800s. We should no longer turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses taking place across our borders.
Issued by COSATU
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Deadly workplace accidents expose systemic safety failures in India
24 June, 2026
Five workers died and dozens were hospitalised after an ammonia gas leak at a seafood processing factory in Tamil Nadu on 21 June 2026. Days earlier,
nine workers were killed at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (RINL) when a ladle of molten steel erupted during casting, engulfing them in a fireball. Preliminary reports suggest a critical gas-rinsing safety process may not have been completed as required.
Together, these deaths expose deep failures in hazard identification, emergency preparedness and occupational safety across India’s high-risk workplaces.
Pattern of preventable risks
These accidents follow a series of deadly workplace incidents, including the Singhitarai explosion and other workplace disasters that have claimed the lives of workers across various industries. In many cases, workers and unions had previously raised concerns
about unsafe conditions.
Evidence from India’s manufacturing sector confirms the pattern. Most power press injuries struck workers on machines stripped of safety sensors. A third of injured workers received no training and learned on the machine itself. When workers flagged faulty
machines, supervisors ignored them. Inspections routinely bypass workers entirely, with buyers and government inspectors rarely speaking to those who know the dangers first-hand.
Strengthening labour inspection and prevention
Official data reveal serious gaps in oversight. Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes figures show inspection coverage stayed below 40 per cent even in hazardous process factories in 2023. The toll shows in the claims. In May 2026
alone, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation settled 185,634 permanent disablement claims. There is no breakdown showing when these injuries occurred, but such a high number in a single month points to both poor data and an urgent need for stronger inspections.
The government must strengthen inspection capacity urgently, including specialist technical expertise for hazardous industries, and ensure inspectors have effective access to all workplaces, including contractor-controlled worksites and special economic zones.
Workers and their unions are often the first to identify emerging risks. When they raise the alarm, employers and regulators must listen and act.
Sanjay Singh, general secretary of Indian National Electricity Workers Federation and IndustriALL executive committee member, said:
“The presence of contract workers in core production operations reflects a growing reliance on precarious labour in hazardous industries. The Visakhapatnam tragedy highlights both the shortage of skilled manpower and the failure of management to invest adequately
in safety measures, issues that must be urgently addressed.”
Ashutosh Bhattacharya, south asia regional secretary at IndustriALL Global Union, added:
“Every worker has the right to return home safely at the end of the working day and that right is empty without strong inspection. ILO Convention 081 shows governments the way. Staff inspectorates properly, open every worksite to scrutiny and put workers and
their unions at the heart of prevention. Each failure to act is measured in lives.”
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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