Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 12 March 2026
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #HandsOffVenezuela #HandsOffCuba #Cosatu40 #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #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
12 March 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 Siyakhuluma Seminar coming next week
- NALSU NEWS: Labour Studies podcast/video – Book launch: Henry Dee | Militant Migrants: Clements Kadalie, the ICU and the Mass Movement of Black Workers in Southern Africa, 1896-1951
- South Africa
- South African Communist Party Statement in support of NUM demonstrations to Eskom
- Minister Nomakhosazana Meth extends heartfelt condolences to Elijah Barayi Family on passing of their children
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Statement of WFTU Women Committee: CUBA is not alone – Working Women against the imperialist blockade – WFTU International Week of Solidarity from 6 to 12 April
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
DITSELA Siyakhuluma Seminar coming next week
Poverty
and inequality remain some of the most pressing challenges in South Africa today. While many efforts have been made to address these issues, millions of people still struggle with unemployment, limited opportunities, and unequal access to resources.
This raises an important question: Do we share a common vision for how to tackle poverty and inequality? While many agree that change is needed, there are often different views about the causes of these challenges and the solutions required.
This Siyakhuluma Seminar creates a space for open dialogue; to reflect on these realities, share perspectives, and explore whether a shared vision for a more just and equal society is possible.
Dear Comrades,
You’re cordially invited to DITSELA’s Siyakhuluma Seminar.
Topic: Poverty & Inequality- Is There a Shared Vision?
Date: 20th March 2026
Time: 11H00AM- 13H00PM
Venue: ZOOM
https://ditsela-org-za.zoom.us/j/94297799087?pwd=dftAoIZDSsANKMjmD6Rsd1CtGybVzL.1
Meeting ID: 942 9779 9087
Passcode: 499871
Contact: me...@ditsela.org.za or ma...@ditsela.org.za for enquiries.
We encourage everyone to participate in the conversation, because meaningful solutions can only emerge when different voices and experiences are brought together.
Comradely Greetings,
DITSELA Media
Ditsela Workers’ Education Institute
+27 11 492 0302 (Switchboard)
@DITSELAWorkersEducationInstitu
_________________________________
NALSU
NEWS: Labour Studies podcast/video – Book launch: Henry Dee | Militant Migrants: Clements Kadalie, the ICU and the Mass Movement of Black Workers in Southern Africa, 1896-1951
Henry
Dee discusses the remarkable life of Clements Kadalie, who exploded on the global stage as head of the Industrial & Commercial Workers' Union of Africa (ICU). A massive popular movement founded in 1919, it exploded across South Africa, also into Eswatini,
Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In the 1920s, it completely overshadowed nationalist and communist parties, organising perhaps 250,000 workers and labour tenants.
Kadalie was a famed orator, journalist and organiser, electrifying rallies with calls for economic freedom & all-in mass organisation. Praised as the most important black worker leader in the world, Malawian-born Kadalie was championed by W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R.
James, Tom Mann, and George Padmore. His story illuminates the period his star rose: the Malawian diaspora and immigrant politics, class struggles and transnational organising, and battles over gender, citizenship, nation and respectability
Dee's deeply researched Militant Migrants is the first full biography of Kadalie. It examines his evolving ideas, African impact, and global importance, & influences, like black nationalism, Christianity and syndicalism; it looks at his unprecedented successes,
inescapable failures, and complicated personal life. While the ICU won gains and alarmed colonial governments, it imploded into autocratic leadership, corruption, factionalism and bitterness; the ICU story is a tale of a man's fall from hero into alcoholism,
a broken family, and ruined reputation.
YOUTUBE: https://shorturl.at/xYoyZ
PODCAST: https://shorturl.at/gVQgQ
LECTURE SLIDES: https://tinyurl.com/92zcjzsx
SPEAKER: Henry Dee is a research fellow at Northumbria University, UK, and historian of empire, labour and migration in the early 20th century. He co-edited (w. David Johnson) I See You: The Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of Africa, 1919-1930,
a collection of primary sources (HiPSA: South Africa). His biography of Kadalie, Militant Migrants, was published by Liverpool University Press. Henry's latest research compares unions in southern Africa, Sri Lanka and Myanmare.
DETAILS: Recording of livestreamed event in Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU)'s Labour Studies Seminar Series, 19 February 2026, 4pm, Eden Grove 3, Rhodes University.
HOSTS: Series run by NALSU in partnership with Departments of Sociology & Industrial Sociology and Economics & Economic History, Rhodes University.
ABOUT NALSU: Based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, NALSU is engaged in policy, research, and workers' education, has a democratic, non-sectarian, non-aligned, and pluralist practice, and active relations with other advocacy, labour, and research organisations.
We are named in honour of Neil Aggett, union organiser and medical doctor who died in 1982 in an apartheid jail.
MORE: http://www.ru.ac.za/nalsu
Kind regards,
Valance
|
|
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
South African Communist Party Statement in support of NUM demonstrations to Eskom
Mbulelo Mandlana, SACP Head of Media, Communications and Information, 12 March 2026
The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes ongoing protests by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the government programme to implement unbundling of Eskom as an entity.
As the SACP, we offer our full and unconditional solidarity and support to the NUM in this important action.
The ransacking of Eskom by the government through its unbundling, as announced in the state of the nation address, represents the most profound act of the state to undermine one of the most important state-owned entities.
Contrary to poetic language used by different spokespersons of government in different podiums, the unbundling of Eskom represents nothing else but the most direct route to its privatisation.
Amidst the visible medium-term stabilisation of Eskom, the government should strengthen the company in its current public organisational form rather than reversing this positive trend by unbundling it and creating conditions for its sale to the highest bidder. This action represents the worst form of liberal policy action of the government in the modern history of the Republic of South Africa.
As a matter of principle, the provision of energy is too important a national need to be relegated to profiteering sections of society. The unbundling of Eskom, similar to all privatisation schemes, threatens the jobs and conditions of service for workers in the entity.
As we have repeatedly stated, these government actions advance an overarching agenda of the executive to implement a cross-cutting liberal policy personified through Operation Vulindlela. No reasonable argument can be made to justify these actions; neither their substance, urgency nor suitability to the national energy needs. These decisions are nothing but the ideological imposition of liberal policy as dictated by international capital and represents our submission to these imperialist interests.
In support of the national protest by the NUM through its various marches, we also call for the immediate cessation of the unbundling of Eskom to protect it and ensure its sustainability as well as the protection of jobs. Any action to the contrary only risks creating and deepening the existing crisis of energy injustice.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
________________________
Minister Nomakhosazana Meth extends heartfelt condolences to Elijah Barayi Family on passing of their children
12 Mar 2026
The
Ministry of Employment and Labour has learnt with deep sorrow, of the passing of the daughter and son of Elijah Barayi, Ms. Connie Barayi and Mr. Mzimkhulu Barayi. Mr Mzimkhulu Barayi passed away on the 9th of March after a short stay in hospital, since the
28th of February 2026, on the day of the burial of his sister.
Minister Nomakhosazana Meth is grief-stricken by these developments and hereby extends sincere and heartfelt condolences on behalf of the department and all stakeholders. The family and children of Elijah Barayi graced the annual Elijah Barayi Memorial Lecture,
dedicated to honouring the legacy of their father and one of South Africa’s most influential labour leader who dedicated his life to improving the working conditions and rights of South African workers.
“We are indebted to the family and children of Elijah Barayi for their dedication and commitment to the Department on the annual Lecture dedicated to the Unionist and Freedom Fighter. We are at a loss for words and hereby extend our deepest condolences for
this tragic double loss that has befallen the family,” says Minister Meth.
The Department of Employment and Labour in collaboration with the University of Johannesburg hosts the annual Elijah Barayi Memorial Lecture. The lecture serves as a platform to reflect on Elijah Barayi’s enduring contributions while fostering scholarly and
societal discourse on contemporary labour issues, social justice, and the ongoing relevance of his legacy in addressing today’s challenges.
The Department of Employment and Labour in collaboration with the University of Johannesburg will host the third Elijah Barayi Memorial Lecture in May 2026
Media enquiries:
Ms. Thobeka Magcai
Ministry Spokesperson
E-mail: Thobeka...@Labour.gov.za|
Mobile: 072 737 2205
Issued by Department of Employment and Labour
International-Solidarity
Statement of WFTU Women Committee: CUBA is not alone – Working Women against the imperialist blockade – WFTU International Week of Solidarity from 6 to 12 April
12 March 2026
The Women’s Commission of the World Federation of Trade Unions expresses its full and militant solidarity with the Cuban people and the working women of Cuba, who for over sixty years have been resisting with dignity, determination and internationalist spirit the brutal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by US imperialism.
The blockade against Cuba is a criminal act, a form of economic warfare that aims to strangle a people who have chosen their own path of sovereignty, social justice and dignity. This aggressive policy directly affects the daily lives of Cuban workers, seeking to create hardship, scarcity and social pressure.
Yet, despite more than six decades of aggression, Cuba continues to demonstrate to the world that a social model based on workers’ rights, solidarity and equality can guarantee real achievements for women.
Cuban women are protagonists in the economic, social and political life of the country. Universal access to healthcare and education, high female participation in public life and institutions, social policies and the social protection system are concrete achievements that millions of women in the capitalist world still cannot even imagine today.
An emblematic example of this progress is the new Family Code, democratically approved by the Cuban people through a popular referendum, which represents one of the most advanced pieces of legislation in the world on family rights, equality and social justice.
The Code introduces profound innovations that strengthen women’s rights and promote family relationships based on equality, respect and solidarity, including:
the replacement of the traditional concept of ‘parental authority’ with that of parental responsibility, which establishes equal rights and duties between parents in the care and education of their children;
the principle of shared responsibility for domestic and care work, recognising the social value of these activities and promoting real equality between men and women in family life;
the legal recognition of different forms of family, based on affection, solidarity and mutual responsibility;
equal marriage and full recognition of the rights of same-sex couples;
the right to adoption without discrimination, based on the best interests of the child;
the recognition of supportive and non-commercial surrogacy, regulated to guarantee rights and protections;
the strengthening of protection against domestic and gender-based violence;
the promotion of the rights of children, the elderly, people with disabilities and caregivers, promoting a society based on intergenerational solidarity.
These achievements show that, despite the blockade and constant imperialist aggression, Cuba continues to advance in building a more just, more supportive and more humane society.
For this reason, the WFTU Women’s Commission strongly supports the WFTU’s international campaign ‘Cuba is not alone’ and calls on all trade unions, working women, popular movements and progressive forces around the world to actively participate in the international week of solidarity from 6 to 12 April.
During these days of mobilisation, we will raise our voices in workplaces, in the streets, in trade unions and in social movements to denounce the criminal blockade against Cuba and to strengthen internationalist solidarity among peoples.
We strongly reiterate:
Cuba is not alone.
Working women around the world stand with the Cuban people.
We demand:
the immediate and unconditional end to the imperialist blockade against Cuba;
respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of the Cuban people;
an end to all policies of aggression and destabilisation against the Cuban Revolution.
The resistance of the Cuban people is a source of inspiration for all working women around the world who are fighting against exploitation, injustice and imperialism.
Long live internationalist solidarity.
Long live the struggle of working women.
Cuba is not alone.
Women’s Commission
WFTU - World Federation of Trade Unions
______________________________
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