Love them or hate them they still an important role to play in our country!
1. In 2008, Mugabe was openly oppressing the MDC.I recall the MDC leader appeared on T.V with blue eyes, badly ruffed up by Mugabe’s men. The official response from Mugabe’s people was that he ‘deserved it!” Mugabe placed a huge order of weapons from China. A ship carrying 77 tons of weapons was headed for Zimbabwe. COSATU heeded a call not to allow such weapons to reach China and subsequently gave instructions to all its members to throw those boxes in the ocean when it arrived at their dock!It used its muscle with its transport affiliate SATAWU to achieve this;
2. Etolling:”Spokesperson Patrick Craven said in the federation’s Workers’ Day statement that the postponement of the R20-billion e-toll project was “a direct product of the workers’ power and sacrifices”, “We call upon government rather to prioritise the roll-out of efficient, reliable, affordable and safe public transport for all the people of South Africa,” Craven said.”
So on matters such as these they have demonstrated that they will use their muscle positively in the best interests of South Africans. They just need to maintain discipline over their striking members. We need to demonise damage to property and violence during strikes. They could become the true heroes of South Africans if they can just prevent their members from damaging property and harming non striking members. I recall that during the security guard strike, many non striking members were murdered.