Trade union federation Cosatu has denied that it plans to set up its own youth wing.
“There is also no interim leadership structure of the purported youth league in place,” Congress of South African Trade Unions shopsteward Phindile Kunene said on Monday.
She said the federation had decided to set up youth desks and not a youth league as reported in the media.
City Press reported on Sunday that Cosatu would launch its own youth league called Cosatu Young Workers at its national congress next year.
Kunene said young people constituted 72% of South Africa’s unemployed and that Cosatu’s decision on youth desks was a “proactive and responsive” way of dealing with challenges facing youth.
“Some Cosatu affiliates and provinces have undertaken this task with enthusiasm and dedication,” she said. — Sapa