Cosatu congress halts as credentials dispute stalls day one

SABC News reports that Cosatu’s 15th National Congress failed to resume after its scheduled start on Monday, with delegates sent back to their hotels while the federation’s central executive committee tried to resolve a dispute over credentials. The congress will resume on Tuesday at 09:00.

The credentials dispute centres on which affiliates are in good standing and whose delegates may be seated. Until credentials are adopted, the congress cannot proceed to its programme, including the election of office bearers.

First deputy president Michael Madala Shingange, who is also a former president of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), confirmed the adjournment in an interview with SABC News. He said the central executive committee was discussing the credentials issue and trying to narrow the points of dispute so the congress could proceed.

“We are resuming tomorrow at 9:00,” Shingange said. “The central executive committee is discussing the issue of credentials, which were a bit contentious here.”

He said delegates had been released to their hotels because there was no dinner at the venue, and that the federation did not want to keep them waiting without clarity on what was happening.

Shingange’s own position is part of the standoff. He has been suspended by Numsa, and the broadcaster reported that a legal letter was sent to Cosatu on Sunday evening challenging that suspension.

Asked directly about the court challenge, Shingange declined to comment. Asked how he felt when he received the suspension letter from his union, he said it was not a nice thing to go through.

“It becomes a sad moment for you,” he said. “But also at a moment when you are preparing to come and deal with the issues that are affecting the country.”

He said the timing, ahead of a congress dealing with the country’s political and economic questions, was a distraction, but that the matter was being handled.

A dispute inside the central executive committee

Shingange said the committee had set parameters and a framework for the discussion, and that the parties were finding one another. He said they were close to finishing the credentials matter.

Asked about a reported proposal that two contentious figures step aside, he said the proposal had not come before the meeting and he did not know where the broadcaster had got it.

He declined to say what the likely outcome would be. “That will be ill discipline of me,” he said. “I will not give a snippet.”

He said the sticking point was credentials coming from affiliates, and that agreement that the congress cannot proceed without credentials was bringing the parties closer.

Asked whether his dispute was ultimately a battle between himself and a named union, Shingange rejected the framing. “I am a member of a union, not a member of an individual,” he said.

What delegates were told to expect

SABC News reported that some affiliates had withheld their delegates from adopting credentials. The broadcaster also set out the rival slates that had been taking shape ahead of the congress.

One grouping, associated with public sector unions, was reported to be backing Zingiswa Losi for general secretary and Mabu

for president. Another grouping, supported by the National Union of Mineworkers, was reported to be backing Shingange for president and the incumbent general secretary for re-election.

The broadcaster reported that a deputy general secretary of one affiliate had declined a nomination for the general secretary position, citing his approaching retirement, and that the nomination had then moved to Losi. It reported that Numsa had warned other affiliates that nominating Shingange would lead to his suspension.

SABC News also reported that some within Numsa want Shingange expelled from the union on the grounds that he has brought Cosatu into disrepute.

The broadcaster drew a comparison with 2016, when Losi’s membership of Cosatu was questioned after her suspension by Numsa, and she was later taken up as a member by another affiliate before going on to serve as a Cosatu official.

Workers’ issues wait their turn

SABC News reported that the congress was meant to deal with the pressures facing workers, and that internal politics had taken up the first day. Its reporter noted that it had been a long time since Cosatu discussed the material issues of workers, and that the federation has also had to manage affiliates not in good standing.

The broadcaster named two affiliates it reported are not in good standing within the congress, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and the former communication workers union that represented workers at the SABC.

It reported that the divide at this congress does not follow the usual political alignments, because affiliates that disagree on whether to stay with the ANC or move with the South African Communist Party are working together on the credentials question.

The congress is scheduled to resume at 09:00 on Tuesday. Whether it does will depend on the central executive committee settling the credentials question first.

Source: SABC News (YouTube), Cosatu’s 15th National Congress, published 14 September 2026