Taking COSATU Today Forward, 22 July 2026
Norman Mampane
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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
22 July 2026
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- DENOSA Eastern Cape congratulates new nursing graduates and calls for their immediate employment to offset impact of those who retired.
- 2026 National Employment Equity roadshows debuts in Kimberley and Polokwane this week
- South Africa-#ClassSolidarity!
- Minister Aaron Motsoaledi welcomes Court Order to permanently seize luxury assets belonging to Tembisa Hospital Tycoon Hangwani Maumela
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- PISA 2025: Education unions get ready for action on new data-Future of work in education
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
DENOSA
Eastern Cape congratulates new nursing graduates and calls for their immediate employment to offset impact of those who retired.
Veli Sinqana, DENOSA Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary, 17 July 2026.
Bisho– The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in the Eastern Cape congratulates the 250 nursing graduates who obtained their Nursing Diploma qualifications from Lilita Nursing College on 16 July 2026, and urges the provincial Department
of Health to employ them urgently to replace the increasing number of nurses who retire while others retire early, including the nurses who completed their community service as they remain unemployed while the shortage of nurses is overwhelming in facilities.
This group is the first cohort of the R171 qualification (nurses who studied for three years to become registered nurses) since the change of the nursing curriculum in South Africa. DENOSA congratulates and welcomes these nurses to the noble profession.
DENOSA calls upon the Eastern Cape Department of Health to give clear direction about the future of this cohort. In consideration of the fact that this group is not allocated for community services, the department must do justice by ensuring that these novices
are employed so that they can be well oriented to the profession.
The number of the new graduates is a drop in the ocean, considering the concerning number of nurses who retire. For example, DENOSA noted, through its data, that 61 nurses who are DENOSA members retired this year alone, while 13 passed away. This brings the
total number of nurses lost to the system to more than 74 (as many others who are not DENOSA members could have retired). Essentially, these take the real number of new nurses to the system to only 176. And there are over 900 healthcare facilities in the province!
Importantly, this group graduates during the difficult time within the health system wherein the burden of workload has become the norm due to the shortage of staff, and the backlog of unemployed nurses increases on an annual basis. The department produces
the nurses yearly through the higher education system, but does not employ them irrespective of resignations, natural attrition and retirement of the employed nurses.
It is of great concern that the nurses who completed their community service from 2024/2025 remain unemployed to date. The workforce shortage continues to affect communities and workers alike.
DENOSA demands the immediate employment of the nurses by the Eastern Cape department of health.
Issued by DENOSA Eastern Cape
For more information, contact:
Veli Sinqana: DENOSA Provincial Secretary.
Mobile : 072 432 8226.
Vuyolwethu Nodlawu, DENOSA Provincial Chairperson.
Mobile: 066 200 9048
____________________
2026
National Employment Equity roadshows debuts in Kimberley and Polokwane this week
20
July 2026
The
joint national employment equity roadshows/workshops by the Department of Employment and Labour, Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to deal with equity issues, ending workplace discrimination,
and enforcing the Employment Equity Act begins this week.
The first 2026 Employment Equity (EE) workshops/roadshows will be held on Tuesday (21 July 2026) in Kimberley, Northern Cape at Horseshoe Inn 101 Memorial Road, Royldene. The second workshop will be held on Thursday (23 July 2026) in Polokwane, Limpopo Province
at – Meropa Casino 59 Prov Roodepoort Street, Ivy Park X14.
Held under the theme: “Bridging the Equity Gap Through Diversity & Inclusion” – the national workshops will end in September 2026.
The 2026 workshops will focus on:
• Presentation on the Draft Amended Code of Good Practice on the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the EE Plan;
• Presentation on practical demonstration of how to utilise the EE System online facilities to capture EE Reports and request EE Certificate of Compliance;
• Presentation on sharing of all types of unfair discrimination cases by the CCMA; and
• Presentation on labour law amendments – Labour Relations Act (LRA), Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), Employment Equity Act (EEA), National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA)
This year’s national EE workshops/roadshows come a year following the implementation of the Employment Equity Amendment Act, No 4 of 2022 which came into force on 1 January 2025. The new amendments and regulations introduced the setting of five-year sector
EE targets, the enhancement of EE System, how to request EE Certificate of Compliance to be able to conduct business with the State.
The rest of the schedule of 2026 national workshops is as follows:
Mpumalanga
• Mbombela Khayalami Hotel 29 Van Wijk Street (28 July 2026)
North West
• Rustenburg – Orion Safari Hotel, 1 Donkerhoek Road (30 July 2026)
KwaZulu-Natal
• Durban (04 August 2026)
• Pietermaritzburg (06 August 2026)
Western Cape
• Cape Town (11 August 2026)
Eastern Cape
• KuGompo (18 August 2026)
• Gqeberha (20 August 2026)
Gauteng
• Pretoria (25 August 2026)
• Johannesburg (27 August 2026)
Free State
• Bloemfontein (01 September 2026)
The EE workshops are targeted at Employers or Heads of organisations, employees and trade unions, Assigned Senior EE Managers, Consultative EE forum members, Human Resource Managers and Practitioners, Academics, Civil society, and interested stakeholders.
NB: All the workshops will be held from 09:00 to 16:00 and members of the media are invited.
More information on the EE workshops, including updates on the venues to be used, will be available on department’s and the CCMA's social media platform as well as the Department’s website:
www.labour.gov.za
For media inquiries, please contact:
Teboho Thejane
Departmental Spokesperson
082 697 0694/ teboho....@labour.gov.za
-ENDS-
Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
Minister
Aaron Motsoaledi welcomes Court Order to permanently seize luxury assets belonging to Tembisa Hospital Tycoon Hangwani Maumela
20
Jul 2026
Final
forfeiture of assets worth R325 million belonging to Tembisa Hospital Tycoon Hangwani Maumela
The Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi welcomes the final Court Order to permanently seize luxury assets worth R325 million linked to Hangwani Morgan Maumela, which he acquired through defrauding Tembisa Hospital. However, the Minister regards this big
milestone as just but the beginning of a process to confiscate all assets of people involved in looting Tembisa Hospital.
There are still public servants at both Tembisa Hospital and Gauteng Department of Health who made this heinous act possible, whose assets and pensions still have to be dealt with: “We implore the Assets Forfeiture Unit to expedite the recovery process”, said
the Minister. “We are also calling upon law enforcement agencies to complete the job through the arrest and criminal prosecution of Hangwani Maumela and his ilk. No one should be allowed to help themselves to resources which were meant for the sick – only
a sick society will allow that to happen without any farreaching and concrete repercussions”, said the Minister.
For more information and media enquiries, please contact:
Mr Foster Mohale
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 072 432 3792
E-mail: Foster...@health.gov.za
Mr Sello Lediga
Health Ministry Spokesperson
Cell: 082 353 9859
E-mail: Sello....@health.gov.za
Issued by Department of Health
International-Solidarity
PISA 2025: Education unions get ready for action on new data-Future of work in education
17 July 2026
As governments around the world await the results of the OECD’s 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) this September, trade unions are mobilising to ensure that teachers’ voices are included in the conversation.
An online workshop organised by Education International recently invited union representatives to learn more about how they can get involved in the report launch, through working in collaboration with education ministries in their home countries. Speakers emphasised
the importance of moving beyond a simple discussion of ranking winners and losers, and using this as an opportunity to learn from one another and focus on investment in education.
Looking beyond the headlines
In his opening remarks, Larry Flanagan of the Trade Union Advisory Committee likened the PISA results to the “World Cup of Education,” emphasising that politicians often like to treat the event like a competition, focusing on which countries are performing
near the top and which are near the bottom. He spoke to how this type of framing often misses the truly useful and relevant aspects of PISA.
“When you look beyond the rankings, PISA provides some really rich data which, as trade unions, we can use. This pre-launch event helps prime our member organisations to make full use of that data in persuading their own ministries around what is needed in
terms of investment and where that investment should go.”
An updated exam for a changing world
PISA 2025 marks a departure from previous models of the exam, with new subject areas that seek to measure students’ preparedness for an increasingly complex world. These include Learning in the Digital World (LDW), which assesses computational problem-solving
and self-regulated learning, and a revamped science section that focuses on real-world decision making in addressing environmental challenges.
“Success today requires more than literacy, numeracy, and scientific understanding,” expressed OECD senior analyst Miyako Ikeda in her presentation to workshop participants. “Students increasingly need to navigate digital environments, manage their own learning,
and critically evaluate information. They need to solve unfamiliar problems. Therefore, PISA 2025 broadens the lens.”
The first volume of PISA results will assess students’ readiness not only through these academic evaluations, but also through an analysis of academic environments and learning conditions. Students were asked a series of questions about teacher support, school
policies on digital devices, and frequency of AI use for schoolwork. These elements were then correlated with data on student performance and attitudes towards school.
Ikeda stressed that this section, in particular, would hold special relevance to trade unions and policy-makers: “These are data points which would give insight into what is going on in the classroom and around the students. PISA 2025 will provide valuable
evidence on how these different elements relate to student learning and engagement.” She expressed that this data can be used to determine which school practices are most effectively preparing students for the world and which are less successful, statistics
that unions can then bring to law-makers and ministries when advocating for certain policies.
“We have sports games for that”
In her remarks during the workshop, AFT President Randi Weingarten echoed Flanagan’s comments about moving beyond a competition mindset, arguing that the PISA results offer a chance at collaboration between nations.
“In terms of our goal and our world and our obligation, the way to help all students is through a collaborative effort... it's really different than markets. It really is about how we help all, which is part of the reason why OECD doesn't just talk about top
performers. They talk about everyone. We have to really figure out how we help all, and that's a real policy imperative, and hard to do in a world that loves to see winners and losers.”
However, she also cautioned against simple “policy tourism,” a phenomenon in which nations simply try to copy programmes from other countries: “Policies can't just simply be transported with a snap of a finger from one to another. This is why PISA is so important
in terms of thoughtful learning and adoption, as opposed to just saying, let's imitate and copy.”
Randi Weingarten’s full blog post on teaching in the era of AI, published on Worlds of Education, is available here: Devices down, eyes up, hands-on: 10 points to boost teaching and learning in the AI era.
From theory to practice
Marjolaine Perreault, General Director of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and member of EI’s Executive Board, shared practical experience in how PISA results are used to inform policy decisions in Canada. Apart from highlighting areas in public education
that need to be reworked, they also provide valuable insight to the union itself, Perreault stated:
“For the CSQ, the importance of this data also lies in the fact that it provides an opportunity to strengthen social dialogue, because it allows us to have a discussion. And every moment when we can talk about education is, for us, an important moment — one
that matters and gives us an opportunity to act. Teachers are important; they are at the heart of the school team’s work, and education personnel are important too.”
Matthieu Pelard, economist at the CSQ, also spoke to the organisation’s ability to translate PISA data into action at the government level, by pointing out how the highest-performing nations in PISA are those that ensure genuine equality of opportunity:
“In Quebec, we continue to advocate for increased investment. We truly believe that school inequalities must be reduced, particularly for certain students — students with special needs, whose numbers in regular classrooms have grown exponentially in recent
years. The workload associated with this for education personnel is very significant. It is important to use PISA to show that we must be able to build a strong argument for supporting all students in their educational success, regardless of the country.”
Flanagan closed the workshop with a clear call to action, once again bringing attention to the strength of collaboration between policy-makers and practitioners:
“As the voice of practitioners, education unions have a particular role to play in fostering those partnerships. So, if there is a national launch taking place and your union is not involved, ask the question– why?”
______________________________
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