Comrade Zizamele Cebekhulu, POPCRU President
Comrade Jeffrey Dladla, POPCRU General Secretary
Comrade Zingiswa Losi, COSATU President,
Comrade Solly Mapaila, General Secretary of the SACP
Comrade Nomusa Dube-Ncube, Premier of KwaZulu-Natal,
Delegates to the Congress,

I greet you in the name of the African National Congress.

The ties that bind the ANC and the revolutionary trade union movement was best described by Isithwalandwe Chief Albert Luthuli, who said that SACTU is the spear and the ANC is the shield.

This means that COSATU, as the successor to SACTU, and the national liberation movement are both integral to the struggles of the workers of this country.

Working together becomes especially important in times when we face severe challenges.

South Africans have always shown that we are a people of great courage and determination, especially in the face of adversity.

We have most recently seen the fighting spirit of South Africans displayed on the sports field, but this spirit runs far deeper and has endured far longer in the struggles of our people.

We can trace this back to the slave revolts in the Cape and the wars of resistance against colonial occupation.

This fighting spirit was evident in the formation of the ANC, the Communist Party of South Africa, the ICU, SACTU, Umkhonto we Sizwe and COSATU.

Driven by this determination, we overcame the hated system of apartheid, we brought an end to the political violence that was meant to derail our democratic transition, we adopted a democratic

 

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