LABOUR CONGRESS
THETO MAHLAKOANA: Fault lies with unions, not Cosatu leaders
The country’s biggest trade union federation is bound to keep declining because of the hypocrisy of its affiliates. Cosatu, which represents 1.6-million workers, mostly employed in the public sector, has lost more than 300,000 members in the past three years and has failed to carry out planned campaigns meant to empower its members and the working class in general. The easy route for the 15 unions affiliated to Cosatu has always been to lay the blame on the elected leadership, but the documents presented to its 13th national congress this week indicate that the affiliates’ failure to pay subscriptions, which amounted to 41% of overall income in 2017, has led to a shoe-string Cosatu budget. This meant past resolutions to increase Cosatu’s share of the workforce to 4-million members by 2009 were not realised. Cosatu’s membership stood at 1.2-million in 1991 and grew to 2.2-million in 2012 but has been in a state of decline since. This is due to lack of quality service, corruption, inf...
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