Dark stain on Cosatu’s legacy: workers let down

AN ERSTWHILE giant has lost its way.

- DR RENEVA FOURIE

FIRST president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Elijah Barayi celebrating the launch of the federation during a rally in Johannesburg on December 20, 1985. Forty years after the founding of the federation, its glory has faded, says the writer. | AFP

(AFP)

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), launched in Durban on December 1, 1985, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.Its formation represented a consolidation of fragmented unions into a single organisation that drove industrial action and broader societal demands. The federation that once made the apartheid regime and bosses tremble now appears weakened by internal rivalries, fragmentation, and cooptation.

Having drawn on the banned South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu), as well as the independent unions that emerged after the 1973 Durban strikes, Cosatu united a broad range of workers across industry, race, and gender.

It gave the working class the strength to influence national politics through consistent organisation, clear ideological direction, and coordinated campaigns that changed the balance of forces in the country. Its contribution to stayaways and consumer boycotts created real pressure on the political authorities of the period and on the business community.

This sustained mobilisation shaped the progressive labour laws of the early democratic government and confirmed the power of a unified working class. In alliance with the ANC, the SACP, and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), the federation sought to advance social justice, economic transformation, and ensure the constitutional and legislative protection of workers. The Labour Relations Act of 1995 and the laws dealing with basic conditions, skills development, and equity reflect this earlier period of organised pressure.