Taking COSATU Today Forward, 29 September 2026 #HeritageMonth
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 “Building a Militant, Revolutionary Labour Movement and Strengthening Anti-Imperialist Working-Class Unity to Deepen Jobs and Advance Socialism” #WorkerControl #NationaActionAgainstCostOfLiving Campaign continues… #ClassWar #Cosatu40 #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle #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
29 September 2026
Organize at every workplace and demand respect for labour rights Now!
Defend Jobs Now!
Join COSATU NOW!
Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU is deeply bothered by allegations of misuse of R2.59 billion in workers’ benefits
- South Africa
- NEHAWU Statement on the NHI marketing and health communication contract by the National Department of Health
- COSATU Gauteng Statement on the Carletonville Mass Shooting
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- IndustriALL strengthens its pay equity agenda by joining EPIC
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
COSATU is deeply bothered by allegations of misuse of R2.59 billion in workers’ benefits
Nonzuzo Dlamini, COSATU Communication Officer, 28 September 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply troubled by claims leveled against the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI).
The bargaining council is accused of misrepresenting a staggering R2.59 billion in worker benefits, by treating the money collected from industry employees as its own asset, instead of clearly stipulating the nature of the funds in its financial records. Statements showed discrepancies in the Sick Pay, Holiday Pay, Leave Pay, and Wellness funds, raising concern of misappropriation.
These revelations came to light after a court order instructed the council to avail its statements to the public - a practice that should have been adhered to, as required by its own constitution.
Allegations of this magnitude are upsetting, despite the response from the council, citing strained relations between Innovative Staffing Solutions, the recruiting company at the centre of this matter and itself, and further stating that it is not obligated to prepare separate financial statements for each fund.
It is worrisome that there could be the slightest insinuation of the misuse of monies that belong to workers, especially from an institution that was established to regulate employment conditions, wages, and labour standards in the sector.
The rotten culture of robbing workers of what is due to them is a vile practice that COSATU will not stand for. Various employers including numerous local municipalities and private companies are perpetually deducting pension and third-party contributions from workers' salaries but fail to pay them over to fund administrators. Thousands of employers are in arrears on pension contributions, totaling billions of rands.
Presenting worker benefits as the organisation’s assets is as good as being dishonest.
COSATU demands full transparency from the NBCRFLI. It shouldn’t have taken a court order to prompt the council to disclose its financials. At the helm of resolving the matter should be the Registrar and Department of Employment and Labour to allay workers’ fears by verifying compliance and restoring the council’s reputation. Accusations of this nature cannot be taken lightly. Not when workers’ hard-earned money is at risk.
Issued by COSATU
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
NEHAWU Statement on the NHI marketing and health communication contract by the National Department of Health
Zola Saphetha, NEHAWU General Secretary, September 28, 2026
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] is seriously concerned about allegations of contract ballooning at the National Department of Health [NDoH] in relation to the National Health Insurance [NHI] Marketing and Health Communication contract.
Our concern is informed by the recent Digital Vibes scandal which exposed the corruption, fraud, maladministration, mismanagement of public funds and alleged money laundering arising from the irregular awarding and management of the contract by the National Department of Health.
The Digital Vibes scandal was a serious indictment of the National Department of Health and raised significant concerns about procurement, governance and accountability within the department. The scandal occurred at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when healthcare workers were on the frontline, with many losing their lives while working under extremely difficult conditions and amid shortages of essential resources.
When such incidents occur at the national level, the public is left without any confidence at all as to whether the deeply entrenched and systemic corruption engulfing the provincial level, as exposed by the R2 billion siphoned from the Tembisa hospital between 2018 and 2023, would ever be stopped and eradicated through the stewardship of the national department. As NEHAWU, we reiterate our call that investigations must be expanded into other hospitals. We do not believe that the Tembisa Hospital was a vulnerable outlier that was waiting to be taken advantage of by these bestial tender scoundrels. We have reasons to believe that the roughly 207 companies that are implicated in that hospital would stop at nothing in using their expansive tentacles to strangle other health institutions in Gauteng and all other provinces.
The National Health Insurance represents an important mechanism towards achieving universal access to quality healthcare and dismantling South Africa’s deeply unequal two-tier healthcare system. The successful implementation of the NHI is therefore of critical importance to the working class and the broader population. There must be no allegations of corruption, maladministration or financial impropriety surrounding the implementation of the NHI.
It is therefore imperative that the National Department of Health provides full transparency and accountability regarding the NHI Marketing and Health Communication contract. The department cannot afford another communications contract scandal following the Digital Vibes saga, which brought the department into disrepute and exposed serious weaknesses in procurement processes, governance and oversight.
NEHAWU notes that the Minister and Deputy Minister of Health have requested law enforcement agencies to investigate the contracts in question. We welcome this move as an important step towards ensuring that the allegations are properly investigated and that there is full accountability and transparency in relation to the NHI communication contract.
We further call for the investigation to be conducted without fear or favour and for any wrongdoing established through the investigation to be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Public resources must be protected, and those entrusted with managing them must be held accountable.
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat.
_______________
COSATU Gauteng Statement on the Carletonville Mass Shooting
Louisah Moepeng Modikwe, COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary, 28 September 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Gauteng is deeply saddened and angered by the mass shooting in Wedela, Carletonville, which has now claimed the lives of 18 people. At least 18 others were injured, with some still in critical condition. Our thoughts and condolences go to the families, friends, colleagues and the entire community that has been affected by this tragedy.
This is a painful reminder that working-class communities continue to live under serious threats of violent crime. People should be able to go to community establishments, spend time with their families and friends, and return home safely. No community should live in fear that armed criminals can enter a public place and take innocent lives.
According to police, armed suspects opened fire on people inside and outside the tavern. Police have launched a multidisciplinary investigation and are investigating 18 counts of murder, 18 counts of attempted murder, armed robbery and malicious damage to property.
We are concerned about reports that the shooting may be connected to an earlier violent incident in the area. Police have said retaliation is one of the lines of investigation, while other possible motives are still being investigated. COSATU believes that the final motive must be established through a proper investigation and that no community should be left to deal with organised violence on its own.
The presence of illegal firearms organised criminal activity and alleged illegal mining-related violence in parts of the West Rand must receive serious attention. The working class cannot be expected to live in communities where gunshots become normal and where families are afraid to allow their loved ones to move around freely.
COSATU Gauteng further calls for stronger police intelligence and visible policing in vulnerable communities. Law enforcement must not only respond after people have been killed. There must be preventative action to identify criminal groups, remove illegal firearms and disrupt organised criminal networks before more lives are lost.
The government must also provide proper support to the families of the victims and to survivors of the shooting. Those who survived such a traumatic attack may need medical care, counselling and other social support.
We also appeal to communities to provide information to the police that can assist with the investigation, while avoiding the spreading of rumours and unverified information that could cause further pain to affected families or interfere with the investigation.
COSATU Gauteng believes that every working-class person has the right to live, work and socialise in a safe community. The loss of 18 lives in one incident cannot become another statistic that is forgotten after the headlines disappear.
We call on SAPS, the Gauteng Government and all relevant law-enforcement agencies to work together with the community to restore safety in Wedela and surrounding areas.
COSATU Gauteng sends its deepest condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones and wishes those injured a full recovery.
Issued by COSATU Gauteng
Internationalism-Solidarity
IndustriALL strengthens its pay equity agenda by joining EPIC
25 September, 2026
Having recently joined the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC), IndustriALL Global Union took part in its technical meeting in Dublin, Ireland, on
17 September 2026 to mark Equal Pay Day, and immediately saw the value of being part of this unique global platform.
Access to leading experts, innovative methodologies and country experiences, combined with new opportunities for networking and collaboration, is creating valuable synergies. These can help strengthen and scale up IndustriALL’s pay equity work across sectors
and regions.
Pay equity has become a key priority in IndustriALL’s gender-transformative agenda. The organization has developed a Pay Equity Toolkit, training modules and awareness-raising materials. It has already delivered programmes in Türkiye, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Through global framework agreements (GFAs), IndustriALL is also working with multinational companies to address gender pay gaps and advance pay equity in practice.
“If we want to increase our impact and scale up our efforts, IndustriALL and its affiliates cannot work in silos at sectoral or company level with individual employers. To achieve greater impact, bring more stakeholders on board and strengthen capacities, these
efforts need to be embedded in broader national and global negotiation and capacity-building strategies. Our experience has shown that many stakeholders who should play an active role in implementing and monitoring ILO Convention No. 100 still lack understanding
of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value,”
said Armelle Séby, IndustriALL director for gender and white-collar workers.
What the data show
The latest evidence confirms both the urgency of action and the opportunities for change. Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the average gender pay gap across OECD countries remains 10.1 per cent and that progress
in closing it is far too slow. The actual gap is likely to be larger, as many indicators measure only full-time workers and fail to fully capture the impact of part-time work and care-related career interruptions.
The data also reveal the persistent undervaluation of women-dominated sectors. Around 87 per cent of long-term care workers are women, while demand for care workers is projected to increase by 22 per cent by 2033 due to population ageing.
At the same time, women remain underrepresented in future-oriented occupations, with only 12 per cent of employed women working in ICT-intensive jobs. Encouragingly, around two-thirds of OECD citizens support policies aimed at increasing the participation of
women and other underrepresented groups in the labour market.
These findings highlight an important lesson for trade unions. Pay transparency can expose inequalities and give workers tools to challenge discrimination. On its own, however, it cannot address the structural causes of gender pay gaps: unequal care responsibilities,
occupational segregation and the persistent undervaluation of women’s work. Lasting progress requires collective bargaining, gender-neutral job evaluation and strong enforcement mechanisms.
Lessons from Brazil and Canada
Important lessons are also emerging from countries that have introduced pay transparency and pay equity legislation.
In Brazil, the 2023 Equal Pay Law (Law No. 14,611) has generated valuable data and increased the visibility of gender pay inequalities. The findings show some encouraging developments. These include growing participation of women in the labour market and improvements
in salary scales, career progression systems, childcare support and flexible working arrangements. However, these advances have not yet translated into equal pay outcomes. The data also revealed significant disparities affecting Black and Indigenous women,
showing the importance of addressing the intersection between gender and race.
Canada’s Pay Equity Act provides another important example. It covers approximately 1.4 million employees and more than 5,000 federally regulated employers. The legislation shifted Canada from a complaint-based system to a proactive approach requiring employers
to identify and correct pay inequities. In 2025 alone, 16,700 employees received pay adjustments, with an average wage increase of CAD 2.37 (approximately US$1.70) per hour. This demonstrates the concrete impact pay equity legislation can have when properly
implemented.
Implementing pay transparency is also complex. Challenges include technical difficulties in collecting and analysing pay data, limited understanding of legal obligations, the resources needed to develop pay equity plans and the difficulty of capturing intersectional
inequalities. Capacity building, proactive enforcement and social dialogue are key to overcoming them.
Slow progress in Europe
Employer resistance is a common challenge. In Europe, implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive remains slow, with only five member states having fully transposed it so far. Strong employer lobbying against the directive partly explains this.
Collective bargaining delivers
Examples from Australia show the importance of social dialogue. In the early childhood education sector, a multi-employer agreement negotiated by the United Workers Union delivered wage increases of around 15 per cent for 91,000 workers. In the aged care sector,
a successful union campaign led to wage increases of up to 28 per cent after the Fair Work Commission recognized the historic undervaluation of care work.
These examples show that collective bargaining remains one of the most effective tools for turning pay transparency into concrete wage improvements.
A practical tool for unions
To support this work, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has developed a practical tool that can help unions and employers move from identifying pay gaps to correcting them. The Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation Tool for Equal Pay (GNJEEP) helps enterprises
evaluate jobs using objective criteria such as education, effort, responsibility and working conditions, compare jobs of equal value, identify workers who may need pay adjustments, estimate pay gaps and generate automated diagnostic reports.
The GNJEEP is designed to support social dialogue and collective bargaining by providing objective evidence to address the undervaluation of women’s work and advance equal pay for work of equal value.
A detailed report of the EPIC technical meeting is available on request from aseby
About EPIC
EPIC is led by the ILO, UN Women and the OECD. Launched in 2017, it brings together governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, companies, civil society and academia to achieve equal pay for women and men everywhere. It contributes to target 8.5 of
the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Visit their website.
______________________________
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