There were strong indications during April and May that the state had launched a new drive to undermine the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Unlike those of many community, youth and other organisations, union structures had come through the first months of the current State of Emergency relatively intact, despite systematic restrictions, detentions and attacks by state-sponsored vigilantes in Natal. However from March onwards the attack on unions, and on COSATU in particular, intensified. (For earlier measures against unions, see FOCUS 66 p.3, 69 p.3)
Bantustan authorities continued to restrict union activities. In the Ciskei bantustan four Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) organisations were briefly detained in April and warned that the union's presence would not be tolerated. In April, 75 Transvaal-based members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) appeared in the Umtata Magistrates' Court in the Transkei bantustan, charged with furthering the aims of banned organisations. They had attended the funeral of a colleague in the bantustan. Both COSATU and the NUM are proscribed in the area.
In 1986 May Day was marked by the largest-ever worker stay-away. To pre-empt a similar response this year the government declared the first Friday in May as a new annual public holiday to be known as 'Workers' Day', (falling this year on 1 May). The UDF stated: 'This simply means that the workers' struggle for 1st May - and not any other day - to be declared a Workers' Day will continue with even more vigour'. COSATU plans to commemorate May Day with a series of rallies were frustrated when local magistrates using powers under the Internal Security Act refused permission for the holding of outdoors rallies in 21 centres. A rally was allowed to proceed in Athlone, Cape Town, only on condition that COSATU's 'living wage' campaign was not discussed. Alternative smaller indoor meetings were held in some areas, mostly in the Durban region, some in the presence of heavily-armed police.
The authorities made a concerted attempt to discredit COSATU's living wage campaign by implying that it was 'Marxist-inspired'. The federation failed in a legal challenge in the Rand Supreme Court to overturn the banning of a Soweto rally to launch the campaign in March. Township councillors linked to the Inkatha movement and the Kwazulu bantustan also refused permission for living wage campaign rallies in Northern Natal. Scheduled for launch in March, the campaign was to have provided a focus for shop-floor demands for improved wages and conditions.
Detentions of union officials and members under emergency regulations and other legislation have continued. According to a list obtained by the British Trades Union Congress, 342 unionists were still being held at the end of April. The unions hardest hit were SAAWU, the Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union, and MAWU. In April over 100,000 workers in the food and metals sectors staged stoppages in protest at the detention of union officials. Scores of SARHWU officials were detained in April and May during the SATS dispute, including the entire negotiating committee, its education secretary Mike ROUSSOS and its president Justice LANGA. Its general secretary Nthai SELLO, held in detention in January, has since been released.
The number of attacks on trade unionists increased. Such attacks had been a feature of the Natal region where the United Workers Union of South Africa (UWUSA), linked to the Kwazulu bantustan authorities, was established in 1985 to counter the influence of COSATU. This year the attacks spread to other parts of the country. At least six trade unionists died in violent incidents between January and May.
Abion SEHUBUDU (30), a member of FAWU, was shot dead in January in KwaThema (Springs) by assailants travelling in a minibus. The incident occurred in the context of ongoing conflict at the local Jabula Food plant between FAWU and UWUSA. In Pietermaritzburg two officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union were seriously injured after they were attacked by alleged UWUSA members in May. Also in May, the NUM obtained an interdict in the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court restraining UWUSA members from threatening NUM members. The application followed the fatal shooting, allegedly by a member of UWUSA, of Bhekuyise NTSHANGASE, an organiser, in the union office at the Vryheid colliery.
Two other unionists were killed by unknown assailants: Joseph KHUMALO (National Union of Textile Workers) was found murdered in Durban in April and Barney MADELA (SAAWU) was found shot dead in Inanda, Durban, in March. Also in March a Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU) shop steward, Kenny MAKHOBA, was abducted by vigilantes in Thokoza, East Rand, and beaten unconscious with truncheons and electric cables.
In the early hours of 7 May, COSATU House, national headquarters of the federation, was bombed. Two bombs, described as 'the most powerful ever detonated on the Reef', were placed in the basement of the building under its main supports causing explosions which rendered it structurally unsafe. Officials have not been allowed to enter since and the unions have had to seek temporary accommodation elsewhere in the city, without access to equipment and documents.
Following the bombing of COSATU House there were signs of a systematic campaign to render unions inoperative by closing down or destroying their premises. During May there were fifteen instances of vandalism and other actions directed at union offices. Only one of those affected was not affiliated to COSATU. In East London two buildings housing unions were burnt down and another was vandalised. In Johannesburg two buildings temporarily housing COSATU unions after the bombing of COSATU House were also targets for arson. MAWU's Krugersdorp office was broken into and vandalised, and the regional office of COSATU in Nelspruit was gutted. In Vereeniging the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union (SARHWU) and the Orange-Vaal General Workers Union were served with eviction notices under the Group Areas Act.
In the wake of the whites-only election, the state appeared to be creating a climate in which to further restrict COSATU unions by means of a smear campaign. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and other government media alleged that the federation was a surrogate of the ANC and South African Communist Party. Police spokesmen tried to justify the May siege of COSATU House by stating that three 'suspected terrorists' had been arrested in the building. Those arrested were however released without being charged. More specifically, police alleged that SATS workers not participating in the strike were brought into COSATU House and assaulted there. The authorities have also tried to link workers operating from COSATU House with the 'necklace' killing of four SATS workers at a nearby railway depot. This was used as the rationale for a second raid on COSATU House in which several people were arrested.
