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Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA on Sunday said it would respond to Cosatu within the required timeframe on why it should not be suspended or expelled from the union body.
"We will respond to [Congress of SA Trade Unions] and honour the seven days we have been given," general secretary Irvin Jim told reporters in Johannesburg.
"The reason we have not responded (yet) was because we asked for a detailed report."
Cosatu and Numsa have been at loggerheads since Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was suspended for having an affair with a junior employee who initially accused him of rape but never pressed charges.
Cosatu, to which Numsa is affiliated, gave the metalworkers seven days to respond on Thursday.
The response would be followed by a special central executive committee (CEC) meeting to discuss it.
Jim questioned the calls for Numsa to be suspended or expelled, as well as union leaders who supported the call.
He said word on the ground was that Vavi must return to his position, and that workers wanted a special national congress.
"Where did they get their mandate if the workers are demanding the return of Vavi?"
Jim took a swipe at the Cosatu's current leadership.
Threat to careers
He said there was a group among Cosatu leaders who saw a Cosatu guided by its founding values and principles, whereas others saw it as a threat to their potential careers in the ANC or government.
He said those leaders had long abandoned socialism and were only paying lip service to the struggle for socialism.
"On the other hand, there are those leaders such as in Numsa and the affiliates Numsa is working with, who are determined to defend and advance the ideals for which Cosatu was founded, including defending a socialist Cosatu," he said.
Jim added that the "clique" was numerically strong in the CEC of Cosatu. He said the "pro-rightwing ANC and SA Communist Party clique" within Cosatu wants to engineer the expulsion of Numsa from Cosatu.
The group had already engineered first the "paralysis", and later the suspension of Vavi.
"This rightwing clique ignores the Cosatu Constitution at will. It has refused to abide by the Cosatu Constitution that demands that when a third of Cosatu affiliates demand the convening of a Cosatu Special Congress, the president of Cosatu must convene such a Congress or be replaced by a convener."
He claimed the "clique", knowing very well that its positions had no mandate from its own members, was "very scared" of a special national congress because it knew that besides itself being exposed, the congress would also trigger leadership removals.
Numsa and nine other Cosatu affiliates asked that Cosatu hold a special national congress. The special central executive committee (CEC) denied this request in February.
