Taking COSATU Today Forward, 15 August 2025 #CosatuCC2025 #CosatuRedFridays
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #Cosatu scheduled to convene its ordinary 8th Central Committee in September 2025 #CosatuCC2025 #WorkerControl #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
15 August 2025
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- NEHAWU to attach properties of the Department of Water and Sanitation
- South Africa
- COSATU Gauteng condemns violent attacks on e-hailing drivers and notes community calls to shut down Maponya Mall
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Turkish garment workers expose systematic harassment and union busting
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
NEHAWU to attach properties of the Department of Water and Sanitation
Lwazi Nkolonzi, NEHAWU National Spokesperson, August 14, 2025
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] will today, Friday 15th August, be attaching properties of the Department of Water and Sanitation through the Sheriff of the Court.
The attaching follows the failure by the Department of Water and Sanitation to adhere to a labour court order which directed the Department to pay our members approximately R4 Million after they were unfairly dismissed by the Department in the Northern Cape in Jan Kemdorp.
The media is invited to cover the attachment of the properties by the sheriff as follows:
Date – Friday 15 August 2025
Time – 10H00
Venue – Sedibeng Building, 185 Francis Baard Street, Pretoria
For further information, please contact: Lwazi Nkolonzi (National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwa...@nehawu.org.za
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat.
COSATU Gauteng condemns violent attacks on e-hailing drivers and notes community calls to shut down Maponya Mall
Louisah Modikwe, COSATU Provincial Secretary, 14 August 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Gauteng is outraged and deeply saddened by the ongoing violence, confrontation, and brutal attacks on e-hailing drivers, which resulted in the shooting that left one driver dead, and two others injured at Maponya Mall in Pimville, Soweto.
COSATU says this cannot be business as usual as workers are afraid to return to work, and some might lose income due to the shutdown, particularly those in informal or casual employment.
If the violence continues or escalates, businesses might consider relocating, reducing staff, or closing permanently and the mall’s reputation as a safe shopping destination could suffer, affecting foot traffic and job stability.
COSATU further notes the growing anger in the community and calls to shut down Maponya Mall to protest these repeated incidents. While COSATU understands the pain and frustration driving such calls, we urge everyone to remain call and to act within the bounds of the law to avoid further loss of life and property.
COSATU Gauteng calls on provincial government, in particular the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Transport and security agencies to urgently engage with e-hailing platforms, traditional taxi associations, mall management, and community leaders to address safety concerns and end the cycle of violence. Law enforcement must act swiftly to apprehend perpetrators and increase visible policing in high-risk areas.
COSATU sends its heartfelt condolences to the family and colleagues of the slain driver and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured. Violence must never be normalised because workers’ lives matter.
Issued by: COSATU Gauteng Provincial Office
International-Solidarity
Turkish garment workers expose systematic harassment and union busting
14 August, 2025
At a press conference in İzmir today, IndustriALL affiliate TEKSİF shared detailed testimonies and evidence of what it says are systematic patterns of harassment, discrimination, and abuse at Digel Textile, a German-owned menswear manufacturer in the İzmir Free Zone.
The event was framed by a striking poster listing the abuses workers face daily: “Mobbing, psychological violence, hazing, pressure, intimidation, occupational bullying, sexual harassment, unlawful dismissal, discrimination, insults, workplace practices against human and women’s dignity.” According to IndustriALL affiliate, TEKSİF, these words reflect real and ongoing experiences reported by hundreds of Digel workers, especially women, over a period of several years.
The findings, based on dozens of testimonies from workers, most of them women, are described by TEKSİF as revealing a disturbing picture of life inside the factory. The union’s newly released report details claims of mobbing, psychological violence, sexual harassment, unlawful dismissals, and gender-based discrimination that it says have intensified since workers unionized in January 2025.
The press conference highlighted that on 17 January 2025, after workers protested low wages and degrading working conditions, Digel dismissed four leading union members without severance on the very same day they joined TEKSİF and won official recognition from the Ministry of Labour. Further dismissals followed on 6 February and 13 June, bringing the total to 15 members fired during the unionisation process.
The report alleges disturbing cases, including:
Managers allegedly telling women “not to get pregnant,” demanding ultrasound images to “prove” pregnancy, and even commenting on women’s bodies in degrading ways.
Women said to be denied restroom access during menstruation or publicly shamed for requesting breaks.
Sexual harassment by managers and colleagues, allegedly ignored, or even perpetrated, by supervisors.
Targeted mobbing and verbal abuse against women who are reported to resist intimidation.
TEKSİF underlined that these accounts span roughly seven years and demonstrate not isolated incidents but a persistent workplace culture where women are subject to gender-based violence, discrimination, and humiliation. The union stated that complaints have often been met with inaction, and in some cases perpetrators have been rewarded rather than sanctioned.
Since January, Digel has fired 15 union members without compensation, in what TEKSİF calls a deliberate campaign to break the union. Many of those targeted were leading voices in the fight for decent wages, safety, and dignity at work.
Digel workers first made headlines in January when they staged a factory protest against poverty wages and degrading conditions. That same day, they joined TEKSİF and won official recognition from the Ministry of Labour. Instead of respecting workers’ rights, management is said to have launched a wave of retaliatory dismissals and intensified harassment.
For nearly 210 days, dismissed workers have held a determined protest outside the factory gates, in what TEKSİF describes as both a fight for reinstatement and a broader struggle for safe, equal, and harassment-free workplaces
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:
“Digel Textile’s behaviour is a shameful violation of workers’ rights and human dignity. We fully support TEKSİF’s fight to end the abuse, reinstate the dismissed workers, and secure a workplace where women and men are treated with respect.”
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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