The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has resumed its 15th National Congress on Tuesday morning after its first day collapsed into chaos over the suspension of First Deputy President Mike Shingange.
The federation’s elective congress at Gallagher Estate in Midrand stalled on Monday when several affiliates, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), withheld their credentials in protest, refusing to allow elections to proceed until clarity was given on Shingange’s status.
Shingange, who is also president of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), was suspended for allegedly refusing to sign leadership nomination documents.
He is widely seen as the frontrunner for the Cosatu presidency, backed by the NUM to take over from outgoing president Zingiswa Losi.
By Tuesday morning, though, Cosatu officials were optimistic the deadlock would be broken.
Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks said the federation’s Central Executive Committee had met late into the night to find common ground.
“We hope it will start today. We’re confident that we can resolve this issue,” Parks said.
“The central executive committee of Cosatu, which is the leadership of the federation and the different affiliated unions, met until late last night, working on resolving these issues and finding common ground. So, we are confident and hope that indeed we will do so, and will be able to report back to the plenary this morning.”
Despite the optimism, well-placed insiders told Africa Daily that the Shingange matter is no longer just an internal grievance – it is now a legal matter.
“There is a court process underway. Comrade Mike is challenging the suspension in the courts. That is what delayed the credentials, because affiliates said you cannot suspend a candidate on the eve of congress and expect us to adopt credentials,” a senior Cosatu delegate said.
“The matter is sub judice. We have to allow the legal process, but we also have to allow congress to continue.”
On Monday Losi refund to be drawn in the matter saying Shingange was still deputy president.
“Comrade Mike Shingane, the first deputy president of COSATU, is in congress. He is in congress.”
The delay forced the postponement of messages of support from alliance partners, including the ANC and SACP on Tuesday.
ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who had been scheduled to deliver the ANC’s message of support on Monday, said the ANC would not interfere and would wait for Cosatu to sort out its own problems.
“We are quite happy to be patient with the federation as it tries to resolve its own problems. They are internal to the federation, and we don’t want to get involved and make things worse,” Mantashe said on the sidelines of the congress.
Mantashe, himself a former NUM general secretary, declined to be drawn into the NUM’s position backing Shingange saying he was no longer part of tbe union.
The four-day congress, with about 2,000 delegates from 16 affiliates, was meant to elect new leaders and set its policy mandate — but it has already lost a day to infighting.
A NUM delegate from Mpumalanga said tbe factional battles among the federation were hampering on the progress of the conference saying Shingange was not supposed to be suspended.
Anotber delegate from Nehawu decried the losing of Monday.
“A full day is gone while workers out there are dealing with frozen wages and job losses, yet we are stuck on one comrade’s case. We need to get on with congress, even if Shingange takes his matter to court,” said the Nehawu delegate.