Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 26 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 at Boksburg, starting today… #WorkerControl #CosatuNationalActionAgainstHighCostofLiving #ClassWar #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
26 June 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!
- 2026 National Employment Equity Workshops Schedule
- Measuring the Impact of the 2025 National Minimum Wage Increase: A Technical Report for The National Minimum Wage Commission
- Media Advisory-Media Accreditation: NUM Central Committee Meeting (29 June – 2 July 2026)
- South Africa
- POPCRU wishes NEHAWU a successful 13th National Congress
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Graveyard to Green Yard: one year ago, workers won a landmark victory
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics#ClassWar
2026
National Employment Equity Workshops Schedule
https://www.labour.gov.za/.../2026%20National...
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Measuring the Impact of the 2025 National Minimum Wage Increase: A Technical Report for The National Minimum Wage Commission
https://www.labour.gov.za/.../Measuring%20the%20Impacts...
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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
POPCRU wishes NEHAWU a successful 13th National Congress
Richard Mamabolo, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 26 June 2026
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) extends its warm revolutionary greetings and best wishes to its sister union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU), as it convenes its 13th National Congress taking place from the 26th to 29th June 2026.
This important Congress takes place at a critical moment for workers, the public service and the broader working class, as the country continues to confront rising living costs, attacks on collective bargaining, austerity measures, unemployment, inequality, weakened public institutions and the continued erosion of decent working conditions.
As POPCRU, we recognise NEHAWU as a militant, progressive and principled union that has consistently stood in defence of workers, public services and the broader struggle for social justice. Through its work in the health, education and allied sectors, NEHAWU has continued to demonstrate that organised labour remains a decisive force in protecting the dignity of workers and advancing the interests of the working class.
We are therefore confident that this 13th National Congress will provide a meaningful platform for NEHAWU delegates to reflect honestly, deliberate deeply and emerge with clear resolutions that strengthen workplace organisation, defend collective bargaining, heighten class consciousness and advance international solidarity.
POPCRU believes that the defence of collective bargaining remains one of the most urgent tasks facing trade unions today. Workers must never be made to pay for economic failures they did not create. Their wages, benefits, job security and working conditions must be protected through strong organisation, unity and principled struggle.
We further believe that the strengthening of workplace organisation is central to building unions that are visible, responsive and accountable to their members. A union is strongest when it is rooted among workers, when shop stewards are empowered, when members are politically conscious, and when leadership remains guided by the interests of the working class.
This Congress must therefore emerge as a moment of renewal, unity and revolutionary clarity. It must reaffirm NEHAWU’s historic role in the struggle against exploitation, privatisation, outsourcing, austerity and all anti-worker tendencies that seek to weaken the public service and undermine workers’ rights.
As sister unions within the broader progressive trade union movement, POPCRU and NEHAWU share a common responsibility to defend workers, protect public services and advance the transformation of society in favour of the poor and working class. Our struggles are interconnected, and our unity remains our greatest weapon.
POPCRU wishes the leadership, delegates, members, shop stewards and all structures of NEHAWU a successful, disciplined, productive and revolutionary 13th National Congress.
May this Congress strengthen the union, deepen worker unity, sharpen class consciousness, and contribute meaningfully to the broader struggle for decent work, social justice, international solidarity and working-class power.
Forward to NEHAWU’s 13th National Congress!
Issued by POPCRU
International-Solidarity
#Internationalism
Graveyard to Green Yard: one year ago, workers won a landmark victory
26 June, 2026
Today is the launch of the film, Graveyard to Green Yard: the coalition that changed the ship recycling industry, a new film
that tells the story of how one Indian shipbreaking union built a coalition to transform one of the world's most dangerous industries.
Released on 26 June 2026, exactly one year since the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally
Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) entered into force. That is not a coincidence.
The Convention is already driving dramatic changes: cleaning up the industry’s environmental footprint, making the work safer, and formalizing employment. Ship recycling is going through a Just Transition that is creating decent work in the circular economy.
This film tells the story of the workers and unions who made it happen.
Graveyard to Green Yard: the coalition that changed the ship recycling industry
Organizing in shipbreaking in India started in 2003, when officials from the Mumbai Port and Dockworkers’ Union spoke to shipbreaking workers in a neighbouring yard and realized they had no drinking water or first aid as they worked 12-hour shifts in the most
dangerous job in the world.
After organizing workers in Mumbai, the focus shifted to the bigger yards in Alang, Gujarat, where the Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers’ Association (ASSRGWA) was formed, an industry-wide union open to anyone working in the yards or the downstream
industry.
By organizing the yards and relentlessly fighting for workers’ rights and social protection, ASSRGWA built strength and credibility with employers and government. By working with IndustriALL, they built a network of global solidarity, with unions in the Netherlands,
Japan, Germany, Denmark, Australia and elsewhere lobbying their governments to ratify the HKC, and for the shipping industry to take responsibility for the full lifecycle of ships.
This brought together a coalition of governments, employers and shipowners committed to transforming the industry through the Convention and social dialogue.
The interplay between the Convention and mobilization on the ground is central: the HKC is a top-down tool that creates the conditions for a better industry. The union is the force on the ground that ensures change is real, and involves workers.
ASSRGWA now has a density above 70 per cent in the yards and has turned its attention to the downstream steel industry, including rerolling mills and small workshops. On 26 June 2026, representatives of the Indian national government, the port authority, the
employers’ federation, ASSRGWA and SEWA, the union organizing downstream scrap recyclers, met in Bhavnagar to discuss the next stage of the transition: extending the benefits of the HKC to the downstream industry.
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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