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Johannesburg - Defiant unions of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) will be meeting with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA and Zwelinzima Vavi with the aim of turning the current situation around through “mass mobilisation”, Netwerk24 reported.
Vavi will be participating in the mass mobilisation with these unions, despite Cosatu’s central executive committee forbidding its affiliates from having contact with the expelled general secretary.
Seven of the nine unions demanding a special Cosatu congress already defied the order on Wednesday by hosting a press conference with Vavi at his wife’s company, Noluthando Resources, in Sandton.
READ: Seven unions come out in support of Vavi
“We will invite him to address our meetings, not as Cosatu general secretary but as a free man,” Food and Allied Workers Union general secretary Katishi Masemola said on Wednesday.
Representatives from the Communication Workers Union, the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union, the South African State and Allied Workers Union, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa and the South African Football Players Union were also at the press briefing and confirmed they would not break contact with Vavi.
Patrick Craven on Wednesday resigned as Cosatu’s national spokesperson and led proceedings at Vavi’s press conference.
READ: Craven quits Cosatu following Vavi's expulsion
Vavi and the unions pointed out that they had no mandate from union members to launch an alternative federation.
They would be consulting with members in the following weeks on what course of action they would take.
“Our reaction cannot simply be to run up and down in the courts," said Vavi.
