Taking COSATU Today Forward, 19 January 2026 #Back2SchoolCampaign #Right2LearnCampaign
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #COSATU provinces are leading the #Back2School and #Right2Learn Campaigns across all locals #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
19 January 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU welcomes the conviction and sentencing of Mr. Iwan Shelbert for his role in the infamous Steinhoff heist
- South Africa
- COSATU saddened by devastating floods
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Defending public higher education and challenging underfunding in Kenya
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU welcomes the conviction and sentencing of Mr. Iwan Shelbert for his role in the infamous Steinhoff heist
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 16 January 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the conviction and sentencing of Steinhoff co-accused, Mr. Iwan Shelbert, who pled guilty to fraud and agreed to turn state witness in exchange for a five-year sentence.
This is a welcome and long overdue victory, albeit tardy and minimal, for workers and pensioners who saw R24 billion in pension and other funds lost in the Steinhoff heist, one of the most notorious in South African history.
Whilst appreciating this victory, COSATU is deeply disappointed that it has taken the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) eight years to secure this conviction.
The leadership of the NPA for years has offered meaningless platitudes to the public that it is busy building a case to ensure justice for the victims of Steinhoff with few convictions to show for their losses and pain. Whilst the NPA’s leadership has been slumbering their way through life, the key perpetrators of the Steinhoff heist have escaped justice.
The consequences of the embarrassing failures by the NPA to act for many years, have not only been felt by the workers and pensioners who were robbed of their hard-earned savings, but the nation at large.
Workers paid a further price to state capture and corruption with the nation’s resulting grey listing. International investors and pension funds are extremely reluctant and often prohibited from investing in grey listed or sanctioned economies. This period of grey listing was a painful blow for a stagnant economy bleeding jobs and battling a 42.4% unemployment rate. Whilst the African National Congress led government and Parliament have made positive progress to ensure South Africa’s exit from grey listing, we cannot afford to be complacent.
The less than inspiring performance of the NPA must sound alarm bells in government and Parliament. Interventions are needed in the pending 2026/27 Budget to ensure that the NPA has all the resources it requires to win the war against crime and corruption, in particular the filling of prosecutorial and other skilled vacancies. The courts too, need to be given the resources required to end the massive backlog in cases and to expedite those involving serious commercial crimes.
COSATU looks forward to Advocate Andy Mothibi taking over as the National Director of Public Prosecutions next month. The NPA desperately needs leadership with the necessary passion and hunger for justice and the capacity to deliver. Society, in particular the working class, needs to see the tide turning in the war against crime and corruption.
Winning this war is key to fixing the state, growing the economy, creating jobs and improving the lives of all South Africans. Society is correctly impatient and expects more from the state organs tasked with this mandate.
Issued by COSATU
COSATU saddened by devastating floods
Zanele Sabela, COSATU Spokesperson, 16 January 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply saddened by the devastation and loss of life caused by the floods in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
A five-year-old child is among the 11 people that have died as a result of the floods that have battered the province since December 2025. Damage to infrastructure is estimated at more than R4 billion with roads swept away and bridges collapsed, leaving communities cut off. More than 1 600 homes have been damaged while some have been completely destroyed by the heavy downpours reportedly measuring 400mm in a matter of days.
COSATU commends the Limpopo Provincial Government and Premier Phophi Ramathuba for being on the ground in an effort to mitigate the damage as more rain is expected. The Federation also appreciates President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assurance that the disaster funds will be safeguarded from any potential looting and will be used to rebuild the province’s damaged infrastructure.
In rebuilding the affected areas, it is critical that government ensures that the replacement infrastructure is engineered in a manner that makes it climate resistant, ensuring it can withstand future disasters and thereby limit further devastation. This is pivotal because in natural disasters, it is the downtrodden that are often the worst affected while also being the least resourced to overcome these calamities.
COSATU expresses its heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost loved ones in the floods.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
Defending public higher education and challenging underfunding in Kenya
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4Go public! Fund education, 16 January 2026written by: Grace Nyongesar the
Interview with Grace Nyongesa, National Chair of the University Academic Staff Union, KenyaWorlds of Education newsletter.
This testimony was collected as part of the research project entitled “In the eye of the storm: Higher education in an age of crises” conducted by Howard Stevenson, Maria Antonietta Vega Castillo, Melanie Bhend, and Vasiliki-Eleni Selechopoulou for Education International. The research report and executive summary are available here.
Worlds of Education: What are the main challenges to the higher education system in Kenya?
The higher education system in Kenya is facing significant challenges. There is insufficient funding for higher education institutions, and inadequate support for students. The lack of adequate financial support for students is particularly impacting students from low-income households. This makes higher education unaffordable for large swathes of the population, which in turn leads to under-enrolment and threatens job cuts in universities.
The cuts in funding cannot be divorced from wider efforts to encourage the privatisation and commercialisation of the higher education sector. For some time now, our union has been resisting efforts to contract out key parts of Kenya’s higher education system to private providers, with severe potential consequences for the job security and working conditions of UASU members.
Worlds of Education: How did your union mobilise against these attempts to privatise higher education?
UASU has mounted a high profile and successful campaign to challenge the proposals for privatisation. We convened a major conference to address the issue, and this involved a wide range of stakeholders that we were able to bring together. We also drew on research findings and reports, several of which had been generated from the research expertise of UASU members. In addition, we connected our campaign with Education International’s ‘Go Public! Fund Education’ global initiative.
Alongside all these activities, we campaigned among our own membership to inform them about the issues, and to prepare them for the possibility of industrial action, should it be required.
All of these initiatives paid dividends when the Cabinet Secretary for Education announced that privatisation proposals had been withdrawn.
Worlds of Education: What do you think were the critical factors that enabled you to achieve this union victory?
I believe our success can be attributed to a number of factors. Our strong collective leadership model is key. We stand together, we know when to lobby, and we know when to withdraw our labour – we know when to do the right things. In this way, we have built strong support for union action across our membership.
Worlds of Education: Having been able to stop this attempt to privatise higher education, do you see any new threats on the horizon?
Certainly. We continue to be vigilant because the government is now proposing university mergers as a way to cut spending. This will not only impact jobs in the higher education sector, but it will reduce access to higher education for many students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who live in areas that may lose their local university as the merger programme is clearly a plan for contraction.
At the moment, we are challenging these developments through parliamentary lobbying, but the campaign is on-going and may need to be escalated. We are taking all the necessary steps to ensure that we are ready and that we are effective for our members and our students.
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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