Cosatu members march during the National Day of Action in Johannesburg. PHOTO: Gallo Images/Luba Lesolle)
By Amy Musgrave
Cosatu’s 16 affiliates are split on whether to dissolve the federation’s national congress, which had not started by Tuesday afternoon.
The four-day meeting has been marred by violence, insults and delays about the legalities of the meeting. The national office bearers told delegates to go to lunch and called another central executive committee (CEC) meeting after discussions over the way forward broke down.
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At the centre of the chaos are disputed credentials, the legal standing of Cosatu first deputy president Mike Shingange and whether the congress is proceeding lawfully. Unions including the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) say the congress must be postponed because a quorum was not reached on time.
Section 3.4.2 of Cosatu’s constitution states: “If after three hours of the time fixed for the meeting, a quorum is not present, the meeting must stand adjourned to a time and place decided upon by the president, provided that the meeting must be held within (1) month.”
The reason for this is that the majority of affiliates had not submitted their credential documents by lunchtime on Monday because they first wanted clarity on Shingange, who was put on precautionary suspension by his union, Nehawu, of which he is the president.
It has taken issue with Shingange wanting to accept nomination to stand as Cosatu’s next president and the matter is in the Labour Court, according to insiders.
Several affiliates are backing him, however, Nehawu is apparently supporting SA Democratic Techers’ Union deputy president Mabutho Cele.
Unions are yet to officially announce which candidates they will support for Cosatu’s top six positions.
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Cosatu general secretary Solly Phetoe told delegates that a special meeting of the CEC, which sat late into Monday and Tuesday morning, had agreed that Shingange was under provisional suspension in terms of Nehawu’s constitution, not Cosatu’s constitution.
This meant that he remained the federation’s deputy president.
However, some unions are demanding a legal opinion on the matter. They also believe that with the time wasted, the congress will not have sufficient time to discuss its reports and reach resolutions.
NUM deputy president Olihile Kgwari said in reaction to the CEC decision, that it is not a “tested legal opinion”.
He said while “a lot of money” will be lost by postponing the meeting, “we must do things right”.
“We want to do justice to the resolutions… We don’t want to turn this congress into a battle of muscles. We move to evoke that clause (of the constitution) on the quorum,” Kgwari said.
Nehawu told delegates it had no objection to Shingange contesting the election, saying its issues with him were an internal union matter.
Sadtu has appealed for the congress to continue, saying its members cannot afford the cost of attending another meeting.
Source: https://insidepolitic.co.za/cosatu-congress-deadlock-unions-split-over-whether-to-postpone-meeting/