Johannesburg - Cosatu hit back at media reports on Tuesday morning, saying its central executive committee meeting that is under way in Johannesburg, had been boycotted by three of its affiliates, not five.
The three boycotting-unions are the South African Football Players Union (Safpu), the South African State and Allied Workers Union (Sasawu) and the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu), Cosatu said.
It said Fawu’s standing in terms of the Cosatu constitution was “still a subject of debate”.
“(The) Cosatu constitution in terms of composition of meetings says ‘each affiliate in good standing with the Federation may participate in meetings’. And some of the unions are way back in subscriptions to the federation,” said spokesman Norman Mampane.
Earlier, reports stated that at least five unions, which support expelled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, had snubbed the all-important meeting.
However, Mampane said two of the five - the Public and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (Pawusa) and the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) - were in attendance.
Cosatu has called on all affiliated unions to attend its meetings, but several unions have said they will boycott some of the federation’s structures until the expelled National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is reinstated.
The unions have also succeeded in a court bid to force the federation to hold a special national congress, where they hope to hold elections for Cosatu’s national leaders.
The agenda for the special national congress is expected to be discussed this week.
Labour Bureau