On Wednesday evening, the Labour Court in Johannesburg was expected to hear an application for appeal against a ruling which halted the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa's (Numsa) congress.
The Labour Court on July 23 granted the union's second deputy president Ruth Ntlokotse and several other suspended officials an interdict which stopped the union from going ahead with its five-day congress, initially scheduled from July 25.
The court ruled that the suspensions were "unconstitutional, invalid and unenforceable in law“.
The ruling ordered the union to only hold the congress when it had fully complied with the terms of its own constitution.
Despite the ruling, the union went ahead with the congress on Wednesday based on its own interpretation of the ruling.
The virtual court proceedings were expected to get under way from 6pm.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said the union's appeal was based on five grounds that included the National Executive Committee's (NEC) power to suspend officials and office-bearers.
According to Hlubi-Majola, the ruling had serious implications on the operations of the union and would render it “inoperable”.
"We lodged an appeal against the judgement primarily because we believe that the judge erred in finding that the National Executive Committee could only suspend office bearers or officials after convening a disciplinary hearing.
“On the contrary, the NEC has the power to place any member or employee of the union on precautionary suspension pending the disciplinary hearing envisaged by the Constitution,“ Hlubi-Majola said.
She said any member placed on precautionary suspension was prohibited from taking part in union activities.
The grounds for the appeal included the powers to suspend to the Central Committee, Regional Executive Committee and the powers to place regions under administration.
The more than 50 suspended officials, office-bearers and shop stewards had also slapped the union with a demand to provide, tonight, the minutes of a Special Central Committee (SPCC) that was convened on Tuesday, where a decision on how to proceed with the credentials of delegates was allegedly taken.
Wednesday's congress proceedings were marked by a walkout of a large contingent of delegates from the Western Cape and some from Ekurhuleni in protest of "constitutional violations".
Western Cape regional secretary Vuyo Lufele said the conference was in contempt of court and the region's resolution on the Numsa Investment Company (NIC) was not included in the agenda.
“We view the omission of the resolution as an attempt to hide what is happening in the investment company,“ said Lufele.
He said the action was also in support of "democratic practices" as the Mpumalanga region remained under administration after it could not hold two regional conferences and was not participating in the congress.
"If they wanted to bring Mpumalanga in, they had ample time to do so between Saturday and Tuesday. They could have set up the credentials committee that they hastily convened following the court ruling to prevent about 1 000 delegates from attending the congress to sort out the credential issues in Mpumalanga," said Lufele.
However, Hlubi-Majola denied that and said the NIC issue should have been brought up in the congress deliberations as it was the correct platform.
"When we lodged the appeal, it meant that the appeal suspended the effect of the interdict,“ said Hlubi-Majola.
Regarding the union's decision to place Mpumalanga under administration, Hlubi-Majola said the region was "dysfunctional".
The first issue that the congress was scheduled to deal with was the election of new office-bearers. Lufele said the suspended members, some of whom would have contested the elections could not mobilise support for the elections as they were prohibited from doing so.
"The conditions of suspension did not allow us to interact with members, so we were disadvantaged."
The congress was expected to continue on Thursday.
Weekend Argus