Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Zwelinzima Vavi

latest news & developments
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)
COSATU

Editorial: Workers’ Day 32 years on

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

  • Editorial
2 min read
ActionSA, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the uMkhonto weSizwe party (MKP) joined the group March on March in a march through central Durban on 26 March 2026. Photo: Action SA
ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO

The left must eschew xenophobia

Xenophobia offers a simple but misleading explanation for a complex crisis. It reframes mass unemployment, failing public services and weak governance as a question of belonging

  • Imraan Buccus
5 min read
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. (GCIS)
AUSTERITY

Godongwana holds better budget cards but economic recovery remains inadequate

Labour federations Cosatu and the South African Federation of Trade Unions have led calls for a budget that addresses massive unemployment and weak growth

  • Brian Sokutu
6 min read
Propoganda: We must acknowledge that powerful states use “fake news” or lies as part of their political strategy.
ANC

Blind to the facts on global issues

The uncritical cheerleaders for the West cannot be taken seriously until they acknowledge that the West supports and collaborates with authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia,…

  • Imraan Buccus
5 min read
March past: A Cosatu demonstration in Johannesburg last year. Photo: Papi Morake/Gallo Images/Getty Images
ANC

Government of national unity: Political shift tests Cosatu’s influence

The labour movement helped end apartheid and usher in Mandela’s coalition government. Its currently diminished position is cause for anxiety as the ANC forges new political…

  • Sarah Smit
8 min read
Power: Members of the US union United Auto Workers attend a rally in support of striking in Chicago last month. Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
THOMAS KOCHAN

Agoa and labour’s ‘nothing about us, without us’ moment

Trade unions from the US and sub-Saharan Africa will be calling for decent work to be put on the agenda at this week’s Agoa forum

  • Sarah Smit
6 min read
Some blame labour protections and unions for South Africa’s economic malaise. But this claim lacks evidence and stands to leave us in an even worse position. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy, M&G
COSATU

South African Police Union ‘divorces’ trade union federation Saftu

The South African Federation of Trade Unions will lobby other police organisations following the loss of 82 000 Sapu members

  • Khaya Koko
5 min read
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president-elect, celebrates with supporters on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. (Tuane Fernandes/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
ANC

If Brazil’s Lula did it, uBaba Zuma can do it too

The architects of our own Lula Moment in 2007 are silent as the Wenzenists call for the return of Da Zuma

  • Paddy Harper
2 min read
The ANC and SACP have agreed to continuous consultation and to strengthening the broader ANC-led alliance
ACE MAGASHULE

South African Communist Party, Cosatu are stuck with the ANC

Despite being disillusioned with their ally in government, the SACP and the labour federation are unlikely to leave the tripartite alliance

  • Mcebisi Ndletyana
8 min read
Demonstrators march during a national strike day of action over the high cost of living, organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), in Tshwane, South Africa, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Joblessness, rising food and fuel prices and an aggressive interest-rate hiking cycle pose a threat to social stability in an economy still reeling from several Covid-19 lockdowns and deadly riots in 2021. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS

Gungubele asks Cosatu, Saftu to ‘relook’ at their demands raised in shutdown march

The labour federations want a basic income grant of R1 500 and for a drop in the price of food, fuel, electricity and interest rates to

  • Sonri Naidoo
  • Sphiwe Mavhungu
3 min read
Zwelinzima Vavi. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
COSATU

Saftu calls for a national shutdown on Wednesday to protest against high cost of living

Rival labour federation Cosatu has also called for a national protest

  • Sonri Naidoo
3 min read
Thousands of members of the NUMSA (South African Union of Metal Workers) attend a mass anti corruption march organized by various South African unions and political and civil societies in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 14, 2015. (Photo by Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
3SIXTY LIFE

Business unionism: Numsa risks collapse amid battle of ideas

Some, including Zwelinzima Vavi, say unions risk collapse if they are run like businesses — a critique that Irvin Jim argues is part of a ‘mischievous attack’ on his leadership

  • Sarah Smit
12 min read
The general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), Irvin Jim, was candid in claiming that he did not view the MK Party as a socialist-oriented party.
3SIXTY LIFE

Numsa’s Irvin Jim claims media takedown campaign

The metalworkers union leader has alleged that NGOs want to capture the union, using media outlets

  • Sarah Smit
7 min read
Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
IRVIN JIM

Irvin Jim accuses suspended Numsa leaders of ‘lawfare’

The general secretary says the court should be slow to interfere with internal union disputes

  • Sarah Smit
5 min read
Numsa supporters attend a mass meeting to get feedback on how the verification of their union membership is progressing.
3SIXTY LIFE

Numsa suspensions are ‘a tool to frustrate the democratic process’, says suspended second deputy president in her affidavit

A court bid that could result in Numsa’s congress being interdicted comes amid a battle for the heart of the country’s single-largest union

  • Sarah Smit
5 min read