The KZN Legislature hosts a Workers’ Parliament during the month of May. This is to provide workers with a platform from which to air their views. Since its inception, participation in the Workers’ Parliament has been limited to the three main trade union federations in the province, namely the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu); the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu). However, April 2017 saw an emergence of a new trade union called South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu). This therefore means that from 2019, Saftu might be participating in the Workers’ Parliament subject to it being on par with the other three federations in terms of registration of trade federations’ criteria.
Eighty individuals from the various federations and their affiliates participate as “Members” on the day of the Workers’ Parliament. During prior planning sessions with KZN Legislature, consensus is reached in terms of the venue, theme, program and public participation.
On the actual day of the sitting, the Workers’ Parliamentarians draft, present and adopt resolutions. These resolutions are then sent by the Office of the Speaker to the respective departments and/or municipalities for their consideration and action. In some cases, specific MECs and senior government officials are called on to account on remedies that were taken to rectify situations that had been raised during previous sittings of the Workers’ Parliament.