Keyword: COSATU

Labour Brokers Bad for SA Workers, but Trade Unions Not Much Better

Picture: Pretoria News Video Over the last 15 years we've seen the emergence and growth of the practice of labour broking in South Africa, which places workers, particularly those employed on the lowest rungs of the South African economy, in a very precarious position with respect to job security and a host of related quality of life indicators. Ighsaan Schroeder of the Casual Workers Advice Office explains Why Cosatu called for a general strike against the practice of labour broking. However, he argues that the trade...

Cosatu Under Attack from the Nationalists in the ANC

Picture: ILR Cornell Richard Pithouse - The living party, which ought to make possible the free exchange of ideas which have been elaborated according to the real needs of the mass of the people, has been transformed into a trade union of individual interests. - Frantz Fanon, Tunis, 1961 It’ll be some time before we really know what happened in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the African National Congress (ANC) on Monday. But it seems clear enough that a majority of the NWC supported a proposal to bring disciplinary...

Cosatu: Riding the Crest of a Wave in Rough Seas

Picture: www.polity.org.za Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen - If a day were a long time in politics, then a decade would be akin to an eternity. As Cosatu members gather for their 10th national congress, they will cast their minds back to 1999, when the labour federation hosted a special national congress.  The primary task of hosting the “special” congress was electing a ‘new leadership’, as many Cosatu national office bearers were ‘deployed’ to serve in the ANC government after the second democratic election....