Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 3 September 2025 #CosatuCC2025
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #CosatuCC2025 Count down has begun…. #Cosatu scheduled to convene its ordinary 8th Central Committee this month, September 2025 #CosatuCC2025 #WorkerControl #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
3 September 2025
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- Hundreds of COSATU delegates to gather at the Federation’s 8th Central Committee this September
- South Africa
- COSATU urges SASSA to reconsider its phasing out of the Postbank as a service provider
- COSATU urges immediate action to reduce the price of electricity to stop a jobs bloodbath
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- WFTU Solidarity Statement with the Global Sumud Flotilla
- Korea: Passage of pro-labour bill marks progress, calls for further reform
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
Hundreds of COSATU delegates to gather at the Federation’s 8th Central Committee this September
Zanele Sabela, (COSATU National Spokesperson, 02 September 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will convene its 8th Central Committee meeting on the 15th -18th of September.
Held under the theme: “Building working-class unity for economic liberation towards socialism”, the four-day event will bring together around 400 members from the Federation’s affiliates, labour service organisations and international guests to amongst others, review the implementation of resolutions adopted at the previous Congress, provide political direction and focus on organisational issues ahead of the National Congress next year.
COSATU President Zingiswa Losi will deliver the keynote address with messages of support from the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).
Details of the event are as follows:
Date: 15-18 September 2025
Venue: Anew OR Tambo Hotel (formerly The Lakes Hotel, Benoni, Ekurhuleni)
All members of the media are invited to attend, and are encouraged to apply for accreditation to cover the event.
Applications for accreditation may be submitted to mam...@cosatu.org.za or non...@cosatu.org.za with the following details:
Name:
Surname:
ID number:
Media House/Address:
Contact number/email:
Alternatively, an application form can be completed via this link:
https://forms.office.com/r/Yhyb5S6h59
Issued by COSATU
Zanele
Sabela (COSATU National Spokesperson)
Mobile: 079 287 5788 or 077 600 6639
Email: zan...@cosatu.org.za
COSATU urges SASSA to reconsider its phasing out of the Postbank as a service provider
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 03 September 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urges the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to reconsider its rash phasing out of the Postbank as a service provider for social grant payments.
The Federation is extremely dismayed by SASSA’s announcement that they intend to end the Postbank’s participation in processing social grant payments to millions of recipients in favour of private banks.
This bewildering move will see affected social grant recipients charged R10 per R1000 withdrawal whilst the Postbank is reported not to deduct such fees. When social grant recipients receive so little and the cost of living is continuously rising, they should be protected from fee deductions to fund the profit margins of private banks. SASSA needs to negotiate with all bank providers to waive such fees for social grant recipients.
SASSA’s move violates government’s mandate to support the Postbank’s role as a state bank aimed at supporting the most poor and marginalised members of society. It is equally disappointing that SASSA’s decision undermines extensive interventions to stabilise, rebuild and grow the Postbank, including amending the Postbank Act to meet the requirements of banking legislation and overhauling its governance and IT systems.
If the Postbank is to be placed on a sustainable path and to fulfill its legislative mandate then government, in particular SASSA, need to provide it the space and support to do so.
Similarly, when 27 million social grant recipients are struggling to make ends meet, then they should be protected from being fleeced of their little funds by banks and their overpaid CEOs.
COSATU will be seeking urgent engagements with the Ministries for Social Development and Communications and Digital Technologies as well as SASSA on this deeply concerning development.
Issued by COSATU
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COSATU urges immediate action to reduce the price of electricity to stop a jobs bloodbath
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 03 September 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urges immediate action by government to reduce the increasingly unaffordable price of electricity to stop a jobs bloodbath. This is not a matter that workers or the economy can afford for government to continue to philosophise about.
Since the advent of loadshedding in 2006, electricity prices have increased by more than 450% with endless promises of short-term pain. The consequences have been that electricity tariffs are squeezing working-class families, taking monies needed to buy food and other essential goods, as well as starving the economy of badly needed stimulus. It is not a coincide that more than 70% of households are drowning in debt.
These relentless electricity price hikes have led to closure of numerous smelters, with the latest alarms being sounded by Glencore that will see thousands of workers lose their jobs, more lost downstream and ghost towns created. Industry and labour have raised the alarm bells on this crisis with government over many years. It is time that government acted decisively to avoid further job losses.
Key interventions need to include ensuring that:
- All consumers are moved to prepaid electricity bills, whilst ensuring that indigent households receive their free electricity allocation.
- Eskom and municipalities disconnect illegal connections and are provided the necessary protection by law enforcement when doing so.
- Revamping Treasury’s debt relief package for municipalities owing Eskom.
- Treasury’s Chief Procurement Officer provide support to Eskom and municipalities to reduce wasteful expenditure.
- The South African Police Service, Hawks and the judiciary ramp up support to Eskom and municipalities to tackle crime and corruption, including cable theft and vandalism.
- Investment in 14 000 kilometres of transmission lines are expedited to unlock renewable energy in the three Cape Provinces.
- Eskom is provided the support, including financing, to enter the renewable energy space to help reduce its own generation costs.
Whilst these key interventions will provide the medium- and long-term solutions needed to place electricity on an affordable trajectory, an immediate intervention is needed from government and Eskom to enable industrial sectors to cope and avoid further smelter and other company closures, including through reduced tariffs. What the economy cannot afford to continue is to allow the massive financial leakages undermining Eskom’s ability to provide affordable electricity to continue, including the widespread culture of non-payment for electricity consumed.
The Federation has continuously raised this matter at Nedlac and will soon be tabling a Section 77 strike certificate there and seeking urgent engagements with Eskom as well as the Presidency and the Ministries for Electricity and Energy, Finance, Cooperative Governance, Mineral and Petroleum Resources, as well as Trade, Industry and Competition to find tangible solutions to this crisis.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
WFTU Solidarity Statement with the Global Sumud Flotilla
BY CENTRAL WFTU, 03 SEP 2025
The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing over 110 million workers in 134 countries, firmly stands in solidarity with all the workers who courageous support the heroic Palestinian people and their relentless struggle and salutes the participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a maritime mission mobilizing over 300 people and 50 ships from 44 nations that departed on August 31st form Spanish ports committed to breaking the siege imposed on Gaza and bringing humanitarian aid and concrete solidarity to the Palestinian people. The evening before departure, a demonstration of 50,000 people marched in support of the Palestinian people and the Global Sumud Flotilla.
This initiative is taking place in a period that Israel weaponizes starvation and uses famine as a war tactic, and in light of the ongoing Israeli military operation with the declared aim of the full occupation of Gaza and the completion of systemic ethnic cleansing. The WFTU salutes the active role played by the USB dockworkers in the collection and the participation of their representatives who left with the flotilla, while the USB dockworkers of Genoa have committed: everything that has been collected must reach the people of Gaza. The international class-oriented trade union movement demands: no one should touch the Flotilla.
The WFTU also pays tribute to the dock workers in Italy, Greece, France, and other major ports who, under the guidelines of the WFTU affiliates, refused to load weapons and military equipment destined for Israel. These acts of workers’ resistance are a powerful expression of class solidarity and internationalism.
The international class-oriented trade union movement intensifies its struggle against the Israeli armed campaigns and aggression against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, for the end of occupation and settlements in the occupied Arab territories, guarantee the right of return for the refugees, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinian people and workers, under siege and under fire, continue to resist with dignity. The WFTU firmly and principled stands by their side. Their struggle is our struggle.
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Korea: Passage of pro-labour bill marks progress, calls for further reform
1 September, 2025
Korean trade unions recognized the passage of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act (TULRAA) as a meaningful step in the right direction, while urging the government on 29 August to pursue deeper labour law reforms.
On 24 August, the Korean National Assembly approved the amendment with a majority support from the ruling Democratic Party.
The revision grants subcontracted workers’ the right to bargain collectively with the principal employer and restricts employers’ claim of loss of business due to strike activities.
IndustriALL Global Union affiliates Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) and Federation of Metalworkers’ Trade Unions (FKMTU) said the historic labour law amendment is a positive step after a decade of struggle. However, the unions call on the government to continue
reforming anti-union provisions in the TULRAA.
FKMTU welcomes the amendment as it directly addresses the contradictions of the subcontracting structure that is deeply entrenched in the metal industries, such as automobiles and steel. From now on, the real employers of subcontracted workers can no longer
evade responsibility.
FKMTU president Kim Jun Young said :
“This amendment is not a victory that was easily handed to us. It is a historic achievement born from the cries and struggles of countless metalworkers who could not properly raise their voices on the conveyor belts, in front of the blazing furnaces and in dangerous subcontracted workplaces. FKMTU also fought together with subcontracted workers, on the roads and on the top of steel towers. Such desperate struggles became the catalyst that showed the world the just cause of amending the law.”
Meanwhile, KMWU issued a press statement criticizing the amendment for failing to expand the definition of worker, clarify principal employers’ responsibility for subcontracted workers and prohibit personal damage claims against individual unionists.
KMWU also questioned the six-month grace period and stressed that rights deferred are rights denied and called on the government to implement the amendment immediately. KMWU demanded the state and employers to withdraw ongoing lawsuits and employer-foisted
damage claim suits against workers supporting subcontracted workers’ strike.
Furthermore, the union urges the new government to abolish anti-union policies created by the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration. For instance, the authority may supervise trade union finances without any allegations or requests, force trade unions to publicize
union cash reserves, set a legal cap on time-off for union activities and treat collective bargaining beyond that limit as an unfair labour practice.
KMWU president Jang Chang-year said:
“The amended law still does not meet international standards. This is merely the first step. KMWU will now begin bargaining and struggling directly with principal employers, together with precarious workers. Through this path, we will defend the rights of all workers and plant the seeds of democracy in the workplace.”
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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