Laney Hermsen

Democracy and Global Diversity

Dr. Darr

18 January 2022

Congress of South African Trade Unions Paper

Growing up I have seen my fair share of struggling. I was delt a challenging hand of

cards from a young age and my whole life I have had to fight for what I felt was right. My name

is Tony Moilwa and I am the representative from the Congress of South African Trade Union.

When I was a child I encountered many obstacles, but I never let them stop me. I grew up in

extreme poverty, received a “Bantu” education, witnessed youth gangs, fighting, and stealing,

and plenty of harassment from the Bophuthatswana homeland. Along with these misfortunes, I

have worked many years in the nasty, dark, and dangerous mines. My whole life I have been

doubted and handed challenges that would make most people quit, but these challenges are what

have prepared me for my life as a local organizer and activist with COSATU.

COSATU was formed in 1985, the same year that the government declared a state of

emergency in 36 districts in South Africa (Clark & Worger, xv) We are not a political party, but

we are a part of the “Tripartite Alliance” with the ANC and the SACP (Eby & Morton, 52). At

COSATU we are a union that fights to represent mineworkers and blue-collar workers (Eby &

Morton,52). These workers are mostly black and are both male and female. COSATU has a

socialist view for this country, and we believe that the workplaces should be controlled by the

government if not nationalized and we believe that the services owned by the government need

to be available to the entire public (Eby & Morton, 52). That is why the three main principles
COSATU is focusing on are a labor rights clause in the Bill of Rights, a non-discriminatory

constitution, and an integrated security system.

The first thing that I am focusing on, as the delegate from the Congress of South African

Trade Unions, is the presence of labor rights in the Bill of Rights. I have personally been through

too much and know numerous people who have been in similar disheartening situations to

continue to let these white-run businesses take advantage of us and our work. At the beginning of

the talks the biggest concern was if we were going to create a long term or temporary

constitution for South Africa. Initially my thoughts were indifferent, and my thought process

went as follows. I thought about the fact that if the constitution were long term the things that I

fought for would be in place for years to come, but what if I did not get everything that I was

pushing for. My worry was that the minority group that has been terrorizing my people for so

long now had too much of a say in these talks. Therefore, I pushed to have a temporary

constitution with a permanent Bill of Rights—that I could get labors rights added into. However,

this did come at a cost.

Arguments were breaking out and overall, there was an unwillingness to find common

ground. So, I worked in cahoots with the ANC and we put a stay away order into place. Since I

know my people are watching me very closely, I was worried to make this executive decision but

after how successful it was, I was happy to help the ANC and pressure the NP into coming to a

consensus on the task at hand. I think that this also proved our willingness to fight to get what we

want. Just like when we helped women, specifically pregnant women, when we saw large

discrepancies in their treatment in the workplace (Eby & Morton, 153). We picketed and went on

strike until the CEC was forced to create a national wage (Eby & Morton, 153). This is just one
of the many examples that shows that we will do whatever it takes to get the dignity and respect

that we deserve, especially in the workplace.

The second principle that we wanted to focus on was a democratic, non-racial

constitution. When COSATU began years ago, we had ideas of what we wanted to accomplish

but no defined definition of how to get there or what that looked like. This is why we eventually

adopted The Freedom Charter and formally began to embrace it (Marx, 389). This was a way for

our group to have an outline of guidelines and important points that we wanted to follow (Marx,

389). In The Freedom Charter it states, “our country will never be prosperous or free until all our

people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities (Eby & Morton, 61).” While

our group does pickets and strikes, we do not want violence and we do not want this segregation

that our country has seen for the last many years. The end of apartheid is a great start to that, but

it is simply just that, a start. We need to begin to see people as people and to realize that we are

fighting for the same cause at the end of the day.

The final principle that we are pushing for is an integrated security system. There was a

lot of debate on this topic including the worry of one side acting on a complete take over and

there were also worries of continued discrimination. While these worries are warranted due to

past actions and violence, I think the best way to come together and to start fresh is to integrate

these security systems. I think the representative from the Afrikaner Volksunie said it best

himself when he said the best way to avoid a takeover or mistreatment by one group is simply

the law. We need to find a way to put laws in place that hold our people accountable and keep

people safe.

In conclusion, as the representative from the Congress of South African Trade Unions my

main focuses are on including a labor rights clause the Bill of Rights, creating a non-
discriminatory constitution, and finding a way to have an integrated security system despite some

groups hesitation. These talks are just the beginning to a long journey of finding peace in this

country. We all need to be patient and willing to find a way to compromise to get to this point.

That being said, I will do everything in my power to be a proactive voice for the workers of

South Africa and find a way to get them the treatment, compensation, and justice they deserve.
 Works Cited

Clark, Nancy L., and William H. Worger. South African The Rise and Fall of Apartheid. Third

ed., Routledge , 2016.

Eby, John C., and Fred Morton. The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South

Africa, 1993. Reacting Consortium Press, 2017.

Marx, Anthony W. “South African Black Trade Unions as an Emerging Working-Class

Movement.” The Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 27, no. 3, Cambridge

University Press, 1989, pp. 383–400, http://www.jstor.org/stable/161099.