As we commemorate Workers Day 2026, and 32 years into democracy, it is time for us to reflect on the rights of workers and confront unemployment. (SAFTU)
Today we dedicate our Thought Leader section to Workers’ Day, one of the most important days in honour of workers across the globe.
Who better to chronicle the struggles of the working classes than the people at the forefront of leading the fight for workers’ rights?
Veteran unionist Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions and erstwhile leader of labour federation Cosatu, confronts the question of workers’ rights in a country where policy proposals and economic restructuring have wreaked havoc on collective bargaining and weakened worker unions. Vavi also tackles the devil of unemployment, especially among the youth and how employers weaponise it to present a take-it-or-leave-it approach to prospective employees who will take anything to survive in this tough economy.
Zingisa Losi of Cosatu, the ANC’s partner in the tripartite alliance with the SA Communist Party, calls on us to reflect on the 32 years of democracy and how workers’ rights have evolved in the three decades. She also confronts the issue of the relevance of unions today in a world where the nature of work has evolved and why unions must be attractive to young people, particularly those joining the job market for the first time.
Perhaps the most troubling issue is the race-based pay disparities, which author Gillian Schutte tackles with statistics showing that the more things change, the more they remain the same. It’s unfathomable that 32 years into democracy, most black workers earn slave wages while their white counterparts remain “at the summit of earnings and security”.
She places the inequalities in the context of colonialism, apartheid and land ownership and how this history continues to put black workers at the bottom of the chain.
It is clear from our contributors to this special edition that Workers’ Day comes as a bittersweet moment. This year, three decades after the democratic transition and just days after we commemorated Freedom Day, must be a time for reflection for workers, employers, labour unions, the state and all political parties.
Workers’ Day 2026 lands in the middle of a jobs bloodbath across several sectors of a stunted economy. Young people in particular face the brutalities of joblessness. Without jobs, people lose dignity.
It is by design the issue of unemployment comes up in nearly every article we carry today.
New DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis warns that Workers’ Day should not become a “ritual of denial” but a moment to tackle joblessness. As part of the Government of National Unity, we hope the DA will use the opportunity to contribute to economic growth and job creation instead of playing politics to win black votes.
As he rightly puts it, Worker’s Day is hollow when millions of our people are unemployed.