Cosatu clears Shingange to stay as first deputy president

Cosatu has confirmed that Mike Shingange remains its first deputy president, after the federation’s leadership considered a legal opinion on his precautionary suspension by Nehawu and agreed he should stay in the post.

The decision was one of two matters the federation’s extended management committee and central executive committee took up after the national congress was adjourned on Monday. As IOL reported on 15 September, the leadership met on Tuesday and the outcome was put to delegates.

Cosatu’s secretariat, Solly Phetoe, told delegates that clause 9.6 of the federation’s constitution governs the removal of national office bearers, including the president and the two deputy presidents. Shingange has not been expelled by Nehawu and has not been removed as a shop steward. He was placed on precautionary suspension under the Nehawu constitution, which is a different thing from removal from office.

“Therefore Comrade Mike is still the First Deputy President of Cosatu,” Phetoe said.

The legal opinion was presented to the management committee and to the extended management committee with CEC members present, and both bodies agreed with it. That settles the first of the two disputes that had held up the adoption of credentials at the congress.

What the delegate numbers show

The second matter turns on how many delegates SACCAWU is entitled to send. Cosatu’s records reflect SACCAWU’s membership at 105, with affiliates given a 5 July deadline to submit their figures. On that number, the union qualified for 140 delegates under the federation’s constitution.

SACCAWU later submitted an updated membership figure that would qualify it for 160 delegates. That is the source of the dispute. The meeting agreed to let the additional 20 SACCAWU delegates attend as observers while the question is considered.

The same team appointed by the CEC and the management committee will review the record and the transcript to establish whether the late submission was condoned. If it was, those 20 observers become eligible as voting delegates.

Phetoe said the national office bearers want the congress to proceed, and called on unions that have not yet handed in their attendance registers to do so. Delegates will now guide the next steps of the congress.

Why the arithmetic matters

Cosatu is the country’s largest trade union federation, and its congress sets the policy positions that its affiliates then carry into wage talks, into the National Economic Development and Labour Council, and into engagements with government. A delegate count is not housekeeping. It decides who votes, and the vote decides which positions the federation takes into the bargaining rounds that follow.

That is why the 20 observers matter beyond the hall. If the review finds the late submission was condoned, SACCAWU’s voting strength at this congress rises by roughly a seventh, and with it its weight on any question put to the floor.

The 105 figure is also worth reading carefully. It is the number captured in Cosatu’s own records by the July deadline, not the union’s full membership. Membership figures submitted to a federation determine delegate allocation, and the gap between what a union reports and what the federation has on file is a recurring source of disputes at congresses.

The leadership’s handling of both matters follows the federation’s own rulebook rather than a vote on the floor, which is the procedure the constitution sets out. Clause 9.6 exists precisely so that a question over an office bearer’s status is decided against a legal reading of the constitution, not against the mood of the room.

For the roughly 1,8 million workers represented across Cosatu’s affiliates, the practical effect is that the congress continues with its leadership intact. Wage negotiations in the public service and in the retail and hospitality sectors, where Nehawu and SACCAWU organise, are the places where the positions adopted this week will eventually show up.

Source: IOL, Cosatu says Shingange remains first deputy president as SACCAWU delegate dispute continues