Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 20 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 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
20 January 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU welcomes move to enforce pension fund payment compliance
- NUM Youth Structure demands urgent action following tragic death of 13 pupils in Vanderbijlpark
- South Africa
- COSATU is dismayed by the 2026 salary increase for politicians
- President Cyril Ramaphosa determines salary increment for public office-bearers
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- WFTU International Action Day in Solidarity with Venezuela
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU welcomes move to enforce pension fund payment compliance
Zanele Sabela, COSATU Spokesperson, 20 January 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the progressive gazette empowering labour inspectors to enforce compliance with regard to payment of employees’ pension fund contributions.
The gazette signed by Minister of Employment and Labour, Ms. Nomakhosazana Meth, empowers labour inspectors to enforce the payment of any contributions deducted from workers' salaries to the relevant fund within seven days along with the employers’ contribution.
This is a key part of the labour law reforms that COSATU has fought tirelessly for and secured at Nedlac as the number of employers who deduct pension fund contributions from workers’ salaries but neglect to pay the money over to the relevant funds has more than doubled in the last three years.
According to the report released annually by the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA), the number of defaulting employers went from 4 000 in 2023 to 7 700 in 2024. Last year saw the figure more than double to 15 521 employers, robbing almost 600 000 workers of the compounding effect of their monthly contributions.
The prime culprits according to the FSCA are the security sector, municipalities as well as the automotive industry. The FSCA put the total outstanding contributions at R7.26 billion at the time. However, National Treasury’s stance to withhold equitable share transfers to municipalities defaulting on third party payments has improved compliance by some delinquent municipalities.
The security sector is an area of extreme concern. Last year former employees of Mafoko Security tasted victory as the court ruled, they could attach the company’s assets to recover contributions that had been outstanding for more than five years.
At its Central Executive Committee meeting in November, COSATU urged its Affiliates to hold errant employers who withhold workers’ pension contributions to account and take legal action where necessary. The Federation will provide support to Affiliates to ensure this happens.
COSATU commends Minister Meth for this bold move and looks forward to working with labour inspectors to ensure enforcement and put paid to employers gambling with workers’ retirement benefits. It is criminal that employees who worked hard all their lives risk retiring in poverty through no fault of their own.
It is critical that the Department continue to ramp up its inspections of high-risk sectors in defence of vulnerable employees, to work closely with the Federation in this struggle and to ensure that its commitment to hire 20 000 additional labour inspectors is finalised.
Issued by COSATU
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NUM Youth Structure demands urgent action following tragic death of 13 pupils in Vanderbijlpark
Xolani Mkhabela, NUM Youth Structure National Secretary, 20 January 2026
The National Union of Mineworkers Youth Structure (NUMYS) is profoundly devastated by the horrific road accident that claimed the lives of 13 young pupils in Vanderbijlpark yesterday morning, 19 January 2026.
“We extend our deepest, most heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and the entire community shattered by this unimaginable loss. The loss of young lives is a loss of our country’s future potential, and we mourn alongside the parents who sent their children to school only for them never to return,” said Xolani Mkhabela, NUM Youth Structure National Secretary.
This tragedy is a painful reminder of previous avoidable disasters, including the 2024 Rocklands and Laerskool Blyvooruitsig accident that claimed 12 young lives. It is unacceptable that our roads continue to be death traps for the youth of this country.
The NUMYS calls for immediate and decisive action:
• Enforcement of Regulations: We demand that the government move beyond condolences and implement strict, uncompromising enforcement of National Scholar Transport Regulations.
• Unannounced Inspections: Law enforcement must conduct regular, rigorous roadworthy checks on all vehicles used for scholar transport.
• Accountability: We demand full accountability for those who fail to adhere to safety standards, putting the lives of innocent children at risk for profit.
The time for rhetoric has passed; the safety of our children must be a non-negotiable priority. We cannot allow another tragedy of this magnitude to occur before systemic changes are made.
May the souls of the departed rest in eternal peace.
COSATU is dismayed by the 2026 salary increase for politicians
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 20 January 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is dismayed by the now gazetted 2026 3.8% salary increase for Members of Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and Municipal Councils. This follows the recommendation by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers for a 4.1% salary increase for public representatives, members of various commissions and the Judiciary.
Whilst COSATU is irritated by this generous increase for politicians and judges, we do support the adjustment for Magistrates given that they are indeed a skilled profession and measures are needed to retain their services and avoid a brain drain upon an already overwhelmed judicial system.
COSATU is disappointed that government has only slightly reduced the salary increase for politicians from 4.1% to 3.8%. We believe that this hike for the already very generous packages for public representatives sends an ill-considered message to an increasingly frustrated society of a political elite that is dangerously out of touch with the lived realities of ordinary South Africans.
It is beyond shameful that in the financial year when Cabinet said the state did not have money to fulfill its constitutional mandates and thus a 2% VAT hike was unavoidable, that government has endorsed this tone-deaf proposal.
It defies logic that two months after the Minister for Finance, Mr. Enoch Godongwana, warned that further tax hikes may be a necessity in 2026, that government has found an additional R536 million to fund the salaries of politicians, commissioners and judges.
Most galling is the inclusion of the 9 331 local government Councillors under whose watch the state of municipal finances and services has deteriorated at an alarming rate, with numerous municipalities failing to pay their employees’ salaries, pensions, medical aids and taxes, and many on the verge of collapse.
If government has spare funds, then it must hire the doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers and other frontline workers needed to provide essential services to working class communities and the economy.
Public representatives need to lead by example with humility, and when government has motivated for tax increases, including failing to adjust income tax brackets for lower and middle income earners for inflation for two successive years or being so miserly as not to not even adjust the SRD Grant for inflation for four out of the past five years or when staff at the Post Office and SABC have not seen increases for three years in a row and thousands of their colleagues were retrenched, then there can be no justification whatsoever for politicians to receive an increase.
It is long overdue that this clumsy Remuneration Commission be instructed to submit its proposals for public comment before tabling them to the President for his approval. These funds are workers’ hard-earned taxes, and they deserve to be afforded the courtesy of being allowed to make their views heard.
Government must amend the terms of reference for such increases to be linked to the performance of public representatives and the institutions they are required to oversee.
Issued by COSATU
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President Cyril Ramaphosa determines salary increment for public office-bearers
20 Jan 2026
President
Cyril Ramaphosa has made a determination to increase, with effect 1 April 2026, the salary of public office-bearers.
The Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers recommended 4.1% salary increment for all public office bearers.
Having considered the Commission’s recommendations and its impact on the fiscus, the President however decided to increase the salary of public office-bearers by 4.1% and 3.8% in different categories.
The increase of 4.1% applies to judges, magistrates, traditional leaders and members of independent constitutional institutions.
The increase of 3.8% applies to Members of the National Executive, Members of Parliament, members of provincial executive councils and members of provincial legislatures.
President Ramaphosa’s determination follows his consideration of recommendations by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers.
The Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers is mandated in terms of section 219(1), (2) and (5) of the Constitution, read with section 8(4) of the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers Act, 1997 (Act
No. 92 of 1997), to make annual recommendations relating to the salaries and/or the upper limits of the salaries, allowances, and benefits of the public office-bearers.
In arriving at its decision, the Independent Commission is required in terms of section 8(6) of the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers Act, 1997, to consider the following:
The role, status, duties, functions and responsibilities of the office-bearers concerned;
Affordability of different levels of remuneration of public office-bearers;
Current principles and levels of remuneration, particularly in respect of organs of state;
Inflation;
Available resources of the State; and
Public Service remuneration levels.
President Ramaphosa appreciates the diligence and integrity with which the Commission developed its recommendations.
Media
enquiries:
Vincent Magwenya
Spokesperson to the President
E-mail: me...@presidency.gov.za
Issued by The Presidency
International-Solidarity
WFTU International Action Day in Solidarity with Venezuela
by WFTU HQ, 12 January 2026
Following the deployment of U.S. forces in the Caribbean with the pretext of war against drug trafficking and after the first land strike on a dock area inside the country, the USA uncontrollably escalates its aggression by conducting of a large-scale strike against Karakas, capturing of the President Nikolas Maduro and Cilia Flores.
The US is intensifying its aggression against the sovereign people of Venezuela, threatening at the same time the whole region, reviving the Monroe Doctrine, and putting in the crosshair other areas such as Greenland.
This illegal kidnap of the President of a sovereign country, constitutes an unprecedented aggressive act that violates every fundamental principle of international law and practice, opening yet another war front in the unstable global scene. This intervention confirming the chaotic phase into which imperialist aggression has entered with unforeseen consequences.
The World Federation of Trade Unions condemns unequivocally the imperialist intervention in Venezuela aiming the control of the mineral and energy wealth of the country in the framework of the inter-imperialistic antagonism for domination.
The WFTU secretariat, following solidarity initiatives of the class-oriented trade union movement that have been developed from the very first moment, decided to initiate an International Action Day in Solidarity with the people of Venezuela on January 22nd, 2026. The WFTU calls upon its members to actively participate in the International Action Day, organizing militant initiatives before the US embassies under the slogans “US Imperialism Hands off Venezuela” “Release President Maduro and Cilia Flores.”
Let us tangibly extend, until the end, internationalist solidarity, condemning the unacceptable and unprecedented intervention against the people of Venezuela.
Let us send a loud and clear message:
The class-oriented and militant unions support the non-negotiable right of the peoples in Latin America and all over the world to determine freely and democratically their own present and future.
US Imperialism Hands off Venezuela
Release President Maduro and Cilia Flores.
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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