The decline of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and other industrial unions will weaken the capacity of Cosatu as the country's biggest federation in its role to defend workers from both big business and the government, as their rights remain threatened.

This is according to leaders of the ANC-led alliance, including the party's national chairperson Gwede Mantashe and SACP deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila, who addressed the NUM national elective congress, in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni...