COSATU PROTEST: The death throes of an organisation caught in its own net.

As part of its traditional annual antics, COSATU gave notice of its plans to embark on a nationwide protest action on 7 October 2025.

In what appears to be based on an outdated 2017 NEDLAC certificate to justify the protest’s legitimacy, COSATU this year once more intends to lament the ongoing economic crisis in the country. Its demands include, among others, the prohibition of “profit-driven” retrenchments, job creation mandates, and restrictions on layoffs.

COSATU labours under the delusion that by calling on South Africans to withdraw their labour on the day, on a no-work-no-pay basis, ironically, effectively halting productivity, would mitigate the issues they are protesting against.

Last year, its picket was a spectacular failure, as 93% of employers reported having experienced no absenteeism among their employees, and no disruption to their productivity on the day of protest.

The planned action has clearly become nothing more than a pointless and self-serving endeavour for it to remain relevant. The collective Tripartite Alliance, of which COSATU forms a part, seems to also be on the brink of collapse and it is no surprise.

It is the very socialist ideology and business-hostile policies of the Tripartite Alliance that are the cause of the weakened economic state of the country, which culminates in retrenchments, layoffs and unemployment.

COSATU should refrain from inciting the hardworking citizens of this country to partake in protest action. Rather, it should focus its energies on positively addressing the real issues causing the economic turmoil in South Africa and everything that goes with it, such as:

• government-sanctioned corruption;

• economically hostile policies;

• retention of unproductive workers;

• crumbling infrastructure;

• failing government departments; and

• cadre- and race-based employment.

  
  

Given its diminished relevance, COSATU unfortunately neither has the will nor the ability to influence or fix any of the above, and protests of this nature will never address the ongoing economic crisis in South Africa. It is simply a futile waste of time.

For more information

NEASA Media Department

media@neasa.co.za

NEASA ... the only labour law specialist an employer will ever need.