The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), Cosatu's largest affiliate, said on Thursday, if the investigation against Vavi was not abandoned, it would be left with no choice but to push for a special congress to be convened to allow members and not a group of leaders to decide Vavi's fate.
For the special congress to be convened, at least seven Cosatu affiliates must agree. Cosatu affiliates that are likely to support Numsa's call for special congress includes the Food and Allied Workers' Union, the South African Municipal Workers' Union, South African Medical Association and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa. The unions that are pushing for Vavi's removal in Cosatu, includes, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu), the National Education, Health and Workers Union (Nehawu) and the police union.
While Vavi does not enjoy majority support within Cosatu's central executive committee, he is supported by many rank and file members of Cosatu.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said the union’s support for Vavi was not about an individual, but defending Cosatu's independence and mandated programmes by workers from vultures who want to turn the federation into a conveyor-belt or labour desk of any of its alliance partners.
“The NEC [national executive committee] has resolved that the ongoing facilitator’s process led by Charles Nupen and Petrus Mashishe – to deal with the ideological, political and administrative issues within Cosatu – should be abandoned. From where we are sitting, we are of the view that the facilitator’s process is not capable of providing a permanent solution to the problems faced by the federation. We are adamant that this process has not only been undermined by the leaks and misrepresentation in the media [but] by faceless sources to smear the general secretary.
"In addition, the secretariat report to the Nehawu congress has already publicly pronounced on the contents of the process, which have been widely reported in the media. Our interpretation of these statements is that they are in fact consistent in singling out the general secretary of Cosatu to destroy his character, integrity and political credibility,” said Jim.
'Biggest affiliate of Cosatu'
​Numsa said it wants all submissions to the facilitator’s process to be made available to all Cosatu structures and affiliates.
"As Numsa, we are clear that the correct platform to deal with some of the challenges besieging our federation is through a special national congress. Cosatu is a worker-controlled trade union federation and its rightful owners – the workers – should not be left outside, but they should be part of the process to deal with these challenges faced by Cosatu," said Jim.
Meanwhile, Numsa has surpassed the NUM as Cosatu’s biggest affiliate union, with the latest figures showing it has reached 320 000. According to Cosatu insiders, NUM has lost more than 40 000 members to Association of Mineworkers and Construction Workers (Amcu) and other unions. Now with less than 250 000 members, the NUM has become the fourth biggest union after Numsa, Nehawu and Sadtu.
“We are now officially the biggest affiliate of Cosatu and this places a mammoth task on our shoulders … in 2009, during the recession, our membership stood at 219 264. Today it stands at 320 000.
"This growth of union membership is related to the quality service we offer, campaigns that speak directly to issues affecting our members and our efforts of organising the unorganised in all our sectors,” said Jim.