Taking COSATU Today Forward, 26 September 2025 #Cosatu@40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary

[Norman Mampane]

 

COSATU TODAY #Cosatu40Anniversary celebration events are taking place in provinces…. #Cosatu@40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary #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

26 September 2025

“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!

• Minister Buti Manamela to address NUM’s International Literacy Day in Phalaborwa

• South Africa
• COSATU to host lectures in the lead up to 40^th anniversary
• International-Workers’ Solidarity!
• Human-centred AI: EI's global conference charts the future of education

Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics  

Minister Buti Manamela to address NUM’s International Literacy Day in Phalaborwa

Livhuwani Mammburu, NUM National Spokesperson, 25 September 2025

 

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will host its annual International Literacy Day event on Saturday, September 27, 2025, at Mopani TVET College in Phalaborwa, Limpopo. The event, which begins at 08:00, will celebrate the achievements of adult learners and promote the importance of education within the mining sector.

Minister of Higher Education and Training, Buti Manamela, is scheduled to address delegates alongside NUM President Phillip Vilakazi. This year's theme is "Celebrate the power of Literacy as a Transformation Tool."

The event aims to encourage new and current learners in Adult Education and Training (AET) programs to continue their studies, highlighting how literacy is key to improving productivity, health, safety, and empowering workers.

NUM holds this flagship event annually to drive participation in AET programs and encourage mining companies to register more employees. This initiative underscores the union's commitment to empowering its members through continuous education.

Details for Media:

WHAT: NUM's International Literacy Day Celebration

WHO: Minister Buti Manamela, NUM President Phillip Vilakazi, and adult learners

WHERE: Mopani TVET College, Phalaborwa, Limpopo

WHEN: Saturday, September 27, 2025, at 08:00

South Africa

COSATU to host lectures in the lead up to 40^th anniversary

Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson, 25 September 2025

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is set the host a series of lectures in the lead up to its 40^th anniversary celebration at Dobsonville Stadium on 6 December.

 

The culmination of four years of unity talks, COSATU came into being on 1 December 1985, and brought together 33 competing unions and federations opposed to apartheid and whose common goal was to bring about a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.

 

The Federation has been at the forefront of advancing, defending and protecting the interests and rights of workers since, and has led in the formation of the country’s progressive labour laws including workers’ rights to form trade unions, collective bargaining and to strike, minimum conditions of service, National Minimum Wage, etc.

 

From its vehement resistance of apartheid to the ushering in of the democratic dispensation and improving the economic and social wellbeing of the working class 31 years post democracy, COSATU has stood the test of time.

 

In the lead up to its 40^th anniversary in December, the Federation will host a variety of activities starting with a series of lectures by its National Office Bearers.

 

The lectures will tackle diverse subjects from COSATU’s pivotal role in gender struggles to the strike that broke the back of industry-wide exploitative labour practices as far back as 1959.  

 

Province: Limpopo

Date: 26 September
Venue: New Peter Mokaba Stadium, South Conference Room 

Topic: The role of COSATU in the gender struggles   

Main Speaker: Freda Oosthuysen, COSATU National Treasurer

 

Province: KwaZulu Natal
Date: 30 September
Venue: Playhouse, Durban         

Topic: History that led to the formation of COSATU  

Main Speaker: Mike Shingange, COSATU 1st Deputy President

Province: Western Cape
Date: 30 September
Venue: SACTWU Hall, Salt River

Topic: Rebuilding worker power in the service sector: Organising in an age of precarity Main Speaker: Solly Phetoe, COSATU General Secretary

 
Province: Mpumalanga
Date: 16 October
Venue: Ikhethelo Secondary School, Bethal     

Topic: Gert Sibande Potato Boycott      

Main Speaker: Duncan Luvuno, COSATU 2nd Deputy President

Province: Free State
Date: 3 October     

Topic: COSATU and the International Struggle         

Main Speaker: Gerald Twala, COSATU Deputy General Secretary

Province: Northern Cape
Date: 30 October   

Topic: COSATU and the Liberation Movement

Main Speaker: Solly Phetoe, COSATU General Secretary

Province: North-West
Date: 19 November

Topic: Strengthening Industrial Unions to build a militant COSATU        

Main Speaker: Duncan Luvuno, COSATU 2nd Deputy President

Province: Eastern Cape
Date: 20 November

Topic: COSATU and the Reconfiguration of the Alliance      

Main Speaker: Mike Shingange, COSATU 1st Deputy President

Province: Gauteng
Date: 21 November

Topic: COSATU and the Mass Democratic Movement 

Main Speaker: Zingiswa Losi, COSATU President 

 

Issued by COSATU

International-Solidarity   

Human-centred AI: EI's global conference charts the future of education

Fighting the commercialisation of education Standards and working conditions Leading the profession Future of work in education Democracy, 24 September 2025

While tech companies race to embed Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools and campuses worldwide, the voices of educators have been largely sidelined. Education International's conference, Shaping Our Future: Education Unions Leading for a Human-Centred AI, puts educators back at the centre. The 4-5 December Brussels conference will bring together union leaders, educators, and experts to tackle AI's impact on education and research.

While AI presents exciting new opportunities for learning, teaching, research and union organizing, it also poses serious risks. If left unchecked, AI can undermine education as a human right and erode educators' working conditions and professional autonomy while perpetuating harmful social and environmental consequences. From exploitative labour practices in AI development to its use in misinformation and political manipulation, the broader impact of AI must be critically examined.

As AI tools increasingly enter classrooms, campuses, and educational systems, the role of education unions has never been more critical in ensuring that the opportunities presented by AI are harnessed while its risks are safeguarded against.

This aligns strongly with EI's Go Public! Fund Education campaign, which asserts the centrality of the teaching profession in decision-making processes about education policy, including technological transformation.

Building collective capacity across all contexts

Building on Education International's previous work on AI, this timely conference advances the goals set out in the most recent EI World Congress resolutions, which call for a human-centred, ethical, and rights-based approach to AI, one that demands transparency, safeguards equity and quality, and supports rather than replaces, the essential role of educators.

The conference aims to provide a platform of exchange to support EI member organisations in shaping the role of AI to ensure quality, equity, and inclusion, safeguard educators' rights, and uphold democratic values. It is open to all EI member organisations, regardless of the level of digitalisation in the contexts in which they operate, from highly digitalised environments to those where the use of AI remains limited.

Interactive programme tackles critical challenges

The conference will feature ample plenary time with keynote speakers and collective reflection, alongside hands-on breakout sessions designed to delve into critical topics in more depth. The breakout sessions are organised around three thematic strands: equity, professional issues, and union strategies, which will explore key tools and approaches, including regulatory frameworks, guardrails, union organising and social dialogue.

Sessions will examine how AI can support educators without undermining their professional autonomy, how to navigate AI's impact on research and academic freedom, and strategies for ensuring AI literacy serves democratic education. A strong focus on equity will address who controls AI development, how to bridge digital divides, and ways to counter AI's potential to exacerbate existing inequalities.

Empowering unions to shape the future

The shared goal is to build collective capacity at all levels, empowering unions to shape AI integration and policy in ways that ensure education and research are inclusive, democratic, and firmly grounded in human rights and professional values. By bringing together diverse voices and experiences from across the globe, the conference will equip participants with concrete strategies and tools to advocate for human-centred approaches to AI in their national and regional contexts.

If you have any questions or need help with registration, please contact Education International at confe...@ei-ie.org

To find more about EI's work on AI please go here

______________________________

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

 

 

 

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