ZINGISWA LOSI | The struggle is far from over - TimesLIVE
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is holding its 15th national congress from September 14 to 17.
This workers’ parliament will see members — from schools in Umlazi to restaurants in Cape Town — gather to engage on the many dire challenges facing the working class and, most importantly, to develop campaigns to resolve them. We are a federation that prides itself on providing solutions, not slogans.
The socio-economic crises facing the working class are painful and must give all of us sleepless nights, from our staggering 43.8% unemployment rate to our entrenched levels of poverty, inequality, crime and corruption. We are deeply worried by the thousands of workers facing retrenchment, from our retail sector to our mining companies.
This is precisely why workers need to unionise and why South Africa needs a strong and on-the-ground Cosatu.
Cosatu has its share of critics, most of whom opt for tweets and neglect to examine its track record.
We are proud of the many victories the federation and its affiliates have won in defence of workers, their rights and their families.
Despite weak economic growth, our unions have secured important wage increases — from our clothing factories to the public service — that have helped protect workers’ wages from inflation, enabled them to take care of their families and provide a better life for their children.
Critics who deride these gains for workers forget that it is workers who must buy the goods the economy produces, that workers need to earn a living wage to buy the essentials to remain healthy, and that a worker paid a slave wage will never be a productive worker.
Whilst our affiliates have worked to improve wages, the federation has spent much time intervening to protect workers from the rising cost of living.
Important successes have included the national minimum wage, which — since its introduction in 2019 — has raised the salaries of 800,000 domestic workers, 900,000 farm workers and more than 4-million employees in the retail, hospitality, security, cleaning, construction and transport sectors.
We have worked closely with ANC-led administrations to achieve these and other victories, as well as put in place the fuel levy relief this year that provided R18bn to help cushion commuters from rising fuel prices.
It was Cosatu — working closely with government and social partners at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) and parliament — that ensured the roll out of the social relief of distress (SRD) grant, providing a lifeline for 8-million unemployed. It is a foundation for the long-sought basic income grant.
It was Cosatu, again working closely with government and business, that helped roll out one of the world’s most successful responses to the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, saving millions of lives and livelihoods, including releasing more than R65bn from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to help more than 5.7-million workers take care of their families.
It was Cosatu that drove the two-pot pension reforms, which have released more than R80bn into the pockets of more than 4-million highly indebted workers since they were introduced in 2024, while simultaneously boosting long-term savings and doubling the number of workers who will be able to retire in comfort.
In 2019, Cosatu tabled proposals to government on an Eskom debt relief package. We were insulted by all and sundry. Yet that R253bn intervention enabled Eskom, our single greatest economic asset, to shift resources to maintenance and investment, ending loadshedding and saving millions of jobs. Now we are engaging Eskom on a path to make electricity affordable for the working class and the economy.
When companies have been threatened with closure, Cosatu has intervened to save these businesses and badly needed jobs. We worked closely with government and business to save Edcon, to stop the closure of Tiger Brands’ canning operations in Ashton and, today, to prevent the closure of Premier Group’s factory in Tulbagh.
When Treasury proposed a 2% VAT hike in 2025, Cosatu did not just oppose it but proposed a concrete alternative: providing Sars with additional funding to achieve the same objective without further suffocating workers.
We must do more as Cosatu — but also government, business and ordinary consumers — to support locally produced goods: from the food we eat to the clothes we wear, the furniture we use and the cars we drive. That is the most sustainable way to grow the economy and create jobs.
Cosatu has come a long way since December 1985, when it was launched during the dark days of apartheid. We are proud of the many victories we have won that have improved the wages, working conditions and lives of millions of workers and their families.
Equally, we recognise that we have far to go and the struggle must continue.
