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The story of May Day – How it forms a central part of South African history.

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1986 marked the 100th anniversary of May Day. The five-month-old Congress of South African trade Unions (Cosatu) staged one of the biggest stay always to demand recognition of May Day as a paid public holiday. They were supported by the formations of the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) under the leadership of the United Democratic Front (UDM).

More than 1,5 million workers observed Cosatu’s call, joined by thousands of school pupils, students, taxi drivers, hawkers, shopkeepers, domestic workers, self-employed and unemployed people. They held rallies in in all the major cities even though many of the rallies were banned in advance by the apartheid government

The majority of South Africans separately declared the day a public holiday and stayed away from work.

READ: Cosatu gears up for Workers Day

Then State President P.W. Botha was shocked by the militancy portrayed by the workers, and declared the first Friday in May as Workers’ Day, a paid public day.
Cosatu announced that it would stop work on both the first Friday and the real May Day. Faced with this, the apartheid regime backed down and in 1987 recognised the 1st May as a public holiday.

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