Taking COSATU Today Forward, 30 July 2026 #Internationalism
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #Cosatu wraps its International Policy Review Workshop at Boksburg… #Internationalism #GreenJobs #NationaActionAgainstCostOfLiving Campaign continues… #ClassWar #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
30 July 2026
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU Eastern Cape handing over school shoes on 31 July 2026
- SACP fundraising dinner to mark the 105th founding anniversary of the Party
- South Africa
- COSATU Gauteng welcomes the launch of the Gauteng Human Resource Development Council and calls for Worker-Centred Implementation
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Mine workers prioritize health and safety
Workers’
Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
COSATU Eastern Cape handing over school shoes on 31 July 2026
Mkhawuleli Maleki, COSATU Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary, 30 July 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Eastern Cape is embracing one of the values Tata Nelson Mandela championed, service to humanity. Beyond Mandela Day, this month reminds us that each individual has the power to create positive change.
COSATU is encouraged and motivated by Tata Mandela having spent many years fighting for social justice to make a positive impact in communities. The Federation will be spending the last day of the Nelson Mandela Month to show the true spirit of “Ubuntu,” humanity to disadvantaged communities.
We will be donating school shoes to needy learners from six schools we identified in three communities.
The details of the handover are as follows:
Date: 31 July 2026
KuGompo
Time: 7.30 am
Venue: Ebenezer Majombozi High School
(Masakhe Primary School and Nompumelelo Primary School will receive shoes at the same venue)
Mdantsane:
Time: 10 am
Venue: R.H. Godlo Junior Primary School
Qonce (Zwelitsha)
Time: 12 pm
Venue: Manezi Higher Primary School
(Nobantu Higher Primary School will receive shoes at the same venue)
Education is the cornerstone of every nation. Investing in education is an important element in building the future of our country. The learners of today are the workers of tomorrow.
Issued by COSATU Eastern Cape
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SACP fundraising dinner to mark the 105th founding anniversary of the Party
Mbulelo Mandlana, SACP Head of Media, Communications and Information, 29 July 2026
The South African Communist Party (SACP) will hold a fundraising dinner to mark the 105th founding anniversary of the Party.
The dinner will be attended by SACP national office bearers, and Party leaders from various structures, as well as dignitaries from across the length and breadth of our country. There will also be entertainment delivered by some of the finest performers.
The SACP anniversary dinner will take place on the eve of the final voter registration weekend for the local government elections. The SACP encourages the people to register for the 2026 local government elections on 1-2 August to ensure that they exercise their constitutional right to vote.
The SACP invites the media to cover the event.
The details are as follows:
Date: Friday, 31 July 2026
Time: 17h00-21h00
Venue: Irene Country Hotel – Nellmapius Dr, Irene, Pretoria, 0062
Keynote speaker: Comrade Solly Mapaila, the SACP General Secretary, will deliver the keynote speech on behalf of the Party.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
COSATU Gauteng welcomes the launch of the Gauteng Human Resource Development Council and calls for Worker-Centred Implementation
Louisah Modikwe, COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary, 29 July 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Gauteng welcomes the launch of the Gauteng Human Resource Development Council by Premier Panyaza Lesufi as an important intervention towards addressing the province's unemployment crisis, particularly amongst young people.
The Council seeks to bring together government, organised labour, business and academic institutions to better align education, training and skills development with the needs of the provincial economy.
As organised labour, COSATU Gauteng has consistently argued that South Africa cannot overcome unemployment, poverty and inequality without investing in the skills, education and productive capacity of its people.
We therefore support initiatives that strengthen coordination between key stakeholders to ensure that workers and job seekers are equipped with relevant and future-oriented skills.
However, the success of this initiative will not be measured by its launch, but by its implementation and its ability to create decent, sustainable jobs. Gauteng's unemployment rate remains unacceptably high, with young people bearing the greatest burden.
Workers are expecting tangible outcomes, not another structure that produces reports without changing the lived realities of communities.
COSATU Gauteng calls on the Human Resource Development Council to prioritise:
The expansion of artisan development, apprenticeships and vocational training linked directly to employment opportunities.
Strong partnerships with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, universities and Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to ensure that training responds to labour market demands.
Skills development programmes that target township and informal settlement communities, women, persons with disabilities and other historically marginalised groups.
Greater investment in public sector skills development, particularly in health, education, infrastructure and municipal services where critical vacancies continue to undermine service delivery.
Transparent monitoring mechanisms to ensure that public funds allocated to skills development produce measurable employment outcomes.
The Federation further emphasises that skills development alone cannot resolve unemployment.
Government must simultaneously accelerate infrastructure investment, support industrialisation, strengthen local procurement, combat corruption, and implement policies that stimulate economic growth capable of absorbing skilled workers into decent employment.
COSATU Gauteng welcomes organised labour's inclusion in the Council and commits itself to actively contributing towards ensuring that workers' interests remain central to the Council's work.
The voices of workers must shape skills planning, as they possess invaluable knowledge of workplace realities and the changing demands of industry.
We also welcome the provincial government's continued focus on creating opportunities for young people from township communities through targeted training and employment programmes.
These initiatives must be expanded, properly funded and linked to permanent employment opportunities rather than temporary interventions.
The Federation will continue engaging with the Gauteng Provincial Government and all social partners to ensure that the Gauteng Human Resource Development Council becomes an effective instrument for inclusive economic growth, decent work and social justice.
Issued by COSATU Gauteng
Internationalism-Solidarity
Mine workers prioritize health and safety
29 July, 2026
IndustriALL Global Union brought together affiliates from around the world on 28 July 2026 to address health and safety in mining as a priority. Participants
called for faster ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 176 (C176) on safety and health in mines and for greater trade union involvement in risk assessment.
The Sector Strategic Response and Action Plan was adopted by the World Mining Conference in November 2025. It commits IndustriALL to mainstream occupational health and safety in the mining sector, particularly through the campaign for ratification and implementation
of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 176 (C176), Safety in Mines. The plan also commits IndustriALL to co-operate across international borders to identify health and safety best practice and continually raise safety standards in the sectors.
Why it matters
“Every 15 seconds, a worker dies somewhere in the world from a work-related accident or disease. Every week, thousands more die from lung disease or cancer linked to exposure to asbestos and other hazards,”
said IndustriALL assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan.
Mining remains one of the most hazardous sectors in the world and one of the few with its own dedicated ILO convention.
“Occupational health and safety is a workers’ issue and a priority,”
Kemal Özkan said, calling on employers to accept responsibility for making work safer rather than blaming workers for accidents.
Trade unions and risk assessment
Stephen Smyth, vice president of the Mining and Energy Union(MEU) and co-chair of IndustriALL’s mining sector, presented on risk assessment and the role of trade unions. He urged affiliates to press for adoption of C176 as a starting point for building strong
workplace health and safety committees and for securing workers’ rights to information, training and the right to refuse unsafe work.
Stephen Smyth also highlighted the Australian coalmining model, under which unions elect full-time safety representatives with powers similar to those of government inspectors, including the power to stop unsafe work. Independent reviewers rate the model as
among the strongest in the world.
Key barriers to union participation in health and safety, he said, include: anti-union cultures that fail to recognise workers’ representatives, exclusion of union representatives from consultation processes and reprisals against workers and representatives
who raise safety concerns.
New convention on biological hazards
Glen Mpufane, an occupational safety and health consultant and former IndustriALL’s sector director, presented on Convention 192 and its accompanying Recommendation 209, adopted at the International Labour Conference(ILC) in 2025. The convention is the first
global standard aimed at preventing exposure to biological hazards, including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. It covers every worker, not only those in mining.
Glen Mpufane set out the close links between silica dust exposure and tuberculosis in mining and described how the new convention builds on the general principles of Convention 155 to provide more detailed protection. He urged affiliates to campaign for ratification
of Convention 192 in their own countries and to embed its protections in collective bargaining agreements, even where governments have yet to ratify.
The case for ratifying C176
Camila Meireles, of the ILO’s Labour Administration and Inspection and Occupational Safety and Health programme, outlined the ratification process and the ILO’s supervisory mechanisms. ILO C176 currently has 37 ratifications, including two new ones this year:
Mexico and Côte d’Ivoire.
She cited Chile as an example, where a tripartite mining sector commission brought government, employers and workers together for the first time, leading to a unanimous commitment to ratify the convention and a national OSH policy shaped by regional consultations.
Workers’ organizations in countries that have not yet ratified C176 can still act, Camila Meireles said, by requesting a written explanation from their government, calling for tripartite consultation at national or sector level and building national campaigns
and coordinating with other worker organizations.
Voices from affiliates
Representatives from Mexico, Morocco and Pakistan described the health and safety challenges facing their members.
Raphael Zuñiga Carmona, from SNTMMSRM Mining General Trade Union of Mexico, said that although Mexican law guarantees workers’ participation in risk assessment, many workers remain reluctant to raise safety concerns or stop unsafe work in practice.
Boutayeb Bouchkhach from SNIME-CDT Morocco called for stronger ratification campaigns, better harmonization between international conventions and national law and increased workplace inspection.
Abdul Haleem Khan, from the Pakistan Central Mine Workers Federation (PCMLF), described mines operating without updated safety practices and appealed for training programmes to build a stronger safety culture among mineworkers.
What happens next?
Kemal Özkan pointed to new data from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s transition minerals tracker, which recorded 835 allegations linked to mining in 2024, of which around one fourth were raised to labour matters where more than 80 per cent of
them are related to occupational health and safety. IndustriALL will continue to raise health and safety across its mining sub-sectors, regional networks and in company-level networks.
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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