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Numsa must explain or go - Nehawu

Johannesburg - If Numsa does not explain why it should stay in Cosatu it will be expelled this week, Nehawu said on Monday.

Numsa had to give its reasons at Cosatu's 7th central executive committee meeting on Friday, or be expelled from the union federation on that day, National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union president Mzwandile Makwayiba told reporters in Johannesburg following its national executive committee meeting.

He said other affiliates who subscribed to the Congress of SA Trade Unions' policy and constitution would support the call for the National Union of Metalworkers of SA to be expelled.

Cosatu would not abandon its policies and constitution, and Numsa had to convince the central executive committee meeting that it should not be expelled, he said.

Cosatu has been dogged by internal fighting and divisions. Numsa and the trade union federation have been at loggerheads since Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was suspended for having an affair with a junior employee. Numsa took Cosatu to court over Vavi's suspension.

The union resolved at its special congress in December not to support the ANC in the elections, going against Cosatu.

Cosatu affiliates have been divided between their support for Vavi and president Sidumo Dlamini.

Nehawu's first deputy president Mike Shingange said the status quo in Cosatu could not continue.

"Cosatu is not what it was five years ago, Cosatu is not what it was three years ago.

"For a very long time we have sat there thinking we can still work something out, but it is quite clear that some people have already taken a decision that in fact they want out of Cosatu.

"But they don't just want to go out of Cosatu, they want to go out of a Cosatu having weakened it and almost killing it."

He said painful decisions needed to be made, and Cosatu rebuilt from scratch.

Nehawu said it was aware of the ramifications of expelling Numsa, but believed Cosatu was up to the task.

Nehawu general secretary Bereng Soke said Cosatu's long-term survival was at stake.

"We are convinced that [Cosatu] has now reached that agonising moment where it has to choose between its long-term survival and development or the further corrosion of its founding principles, unity and cohesion by the parallel internal existence of a project designed to establish a rival trade union centre.

"We are clear and adamant that for the sake of the long-term survival of our union and federation... we shall effect the surgical removal of elements whose continued existence within the fold of our federation would eventually lead to its demise."


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