Zingiswa Losi is the president of Cosatu. Picture: File.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will soon be hosting its 15th national congress where workers from the clothing factories of Salt River to the mines of Thabazimbi, will reflect on the many dire challenges facing the working class and most importantly to adopt resolutions and campaigns the Federation must wage to defend workers’ hard-won rights and improve their working and living conditions.
Critics, usually ill-informed, are often quick to write off unions, yet fail to appreciate the many gains that workers enjoy today in South Africa are the product of generations of struggles led by the trade union movement, in particular Cosatu.
Cosatu and its affiliates’ roles are to defend workers at the workplace, to improve their working and living conditions, and because we are a progressive labour movement founded upon the principles of socialism, to drive society’s transformation.
A key component of the Congress is for Cosatu to report to its members on the strides it has achieved over the past four years, the challenges and the path ahead. Contrary to the ponderings of the army of armchair coaches, there is much Cosatu has achieved and much more still to be done.
We are proud that despite sluggish economic growth, our unions have been able to secure positive wage increases to protect workers’ wages from inflationary erosion and enable them to live a better life.
It was Cosatu that drove the Two Pot Pension Reforms, the single most important pension amendments in decades, that has released over R80 billion into the pockets of more than 4 million highly indebted workers whilst simultaneously boosting long-term savings with industry experts estimating that these reforms will double the number of workers able to retire in comfort.
We are now engaging Treasury on the next phase of pension reforms to ensure that workers, especially those who lose their jobs, are able to access greater relief and that we find ways of reducing the painful tax burden upon workers.
Over the past few years, Cosatu and its affiliates have intervened when strategic companies and sectors have been on the verge of collapse.
These interventions in partnership with affected businesses and farmers, and the African National Congress led administrations, have ranged from Edcon employing thousands of workers in the retail sector and many more along the clothing factories to more recently to stave off Tiger Brands’ previous planned closure of its canning operations in Ashton and currently to stop the intended shutdown of Premier Group’s canning factory in Tulbagh which would be an unprecedented economic catastrophe for that community.
Ahead of its 15th national congress, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi outlines the federation’s claimed achievements on wages, pensions, jobs and social protection, while acknowledging South Africa’s continuing unemployment, poverty and inequality. Picture: File
Some critics lament that Cosatu is merely concerned with the immediate interests of its members yet it was the Federation who first proposed in 2019 and drove the R253 billion debt relief package for Eskom to enable it to focus on maintenance and infrastructure investments as the fastest way to end the loadshedding crisis that threatened to collapse the economy.
Today South Africa has not only ended loadshedding but soon will close the chapter on load reduction. Cosatu today is working closely with Eskom and industry to provide relief for smelters suffocated by the high levels of electricity tariffs, the next key step to unlocking badly needed economic growth.
It was Cosatu that drove with the support of the ANC in Parliament, the overhauling of the Public Investment Corporation Act to put in place critical transparency, accountability and investment guidelines to protect workers and pensioners’ hard earned money and to ensure that the largest investment fund in the continent, is utilised to grow the economy and create jobs, and not feather the nests of a corrupt few.
Cosatu with the active support of then Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, helped put in place the National Minimum Wage Act in 2019. Over the past few years, we have been able to ensure that it has increased the wages of 1 million domestic workers, 1 million farm workers and another 4 million workers in our hospitality, construction, security, transport and other sectors by 100%, 66% and 50% respectively. Our challenge now is to ramp up compliance by all employers.
The past term saw the conclusion of efforts to manage and overcome the global pandemic, COVID-19. Cosatu, working closely with government and business, helped oversee one of the world’s most successful health and safety and economic and social relief packages, saving millions of lives and livelihoods.
This social compact saw over R65 billion released from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to help 5.7 million workers in the private sector take care of their families. It saw the introduction of the SRD Grant that today helps 8 million destitute South Africans feed their families and lays the foundation for a Basic Income Grant.
The Federation has similarly worked closely with government and business to ensure that South Africa remains a member of the African Growth and Opportunities Act and that the Act itself is extended as it has helped create thousands of jobs across our manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
Similarly, we are engaging at Nedlac on the roll out of the African Continental Free Trade Area as this is key to turning Africa around and to protecting and nurturing local jobs and industries.
We continue to work closely with government to lay the foundations for the National Health Insurance as the most effective path towards achieving universal healthcare.
In 2022 proposals to gut our labour laws and set back workers’ hard-won rights were tabled at Nedlac. Cosatu acted and not only ensured that these were stopped but in fact that workers’ rights will be strengthened and extended to vulnerable workers from our film industry to uber drivers.
We are proud of the progressive role that Cosatu has played over its 40 years. Important victories have been won that have immeasurably improved the lives of millions. However, much more remains to be done, in particular to tackle our unacceptably high unemployment, inequality, poverty, crime and corruption levels.
Cosatu will continue to lead these struggles.
Zingiswa Losi is the president of Cosatu.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Media Group.