In a show of unity, President Jacob Zuma will address Cosatu’s main Workers’ Day celebration in Bloemfontein alongside Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.
Organised around the theme of Celebrating workers’ contribution in the struggle for liberation, rallies are set to take place in all nine provinces.
Leaders of the alliance - Cosatu, the ANC and the SACP - will share the platform at each rally.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will be at the Eastern Cape’s May day rally, where he will be joined by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin.
Mantashe will hand over the ANC centenary flame to the party’s Eastern Cape leadership during a church service at East London’s City Hall.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson will be in Saldanha Bay; ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa is to speak in Plettenberg Bay; ANC deputy secretary-general Thandi Modise will speak in Joburg; and Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe will address separate rallies in KwaZulu-Natal.
Metal workers union (Numsa) leader Irvin Jim will speak in the Northern Cape, while ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe will be in Mpumalanga.
In the Western Cape, Cosatu has planned a protest march on the Cape Chamber of Commerce over labour broking.
“It’s going ahead rain or shine,” provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said.
Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said the history of the struggle of the working class lay at the heart of the history of the ANC.
“Similarly, the history of workers’ struggles in SA would be extremely incomplete without the leadership role of the ANC,” Craven said.
While the ANC and Cosatu will come out holding hands today, the relationship has been stormy of late.
Divisions have also emerged within Cosatu, including on whether or not Zuma should serve a second term.
Last week, Cosatu talked the ANC into suspending the roll-out of tolls for a month.