As the announcement of the nomination process was concluded, a Hlanganani hand was flagged sky high. The comrades from this region proposed that Congress invoke Chapter 7 (2) (c) (ii) of the Numsa Constitution. “…members at the National Congress shall nominate and duly second persons appropriate for the position of President, President, Vice-Presidents, National Treasurer, General Secretary and the Deputy General Secretary.”
The motion was moved by Hlanganani and seconded by Western Transvaal . The table invited contrary views and Ekurhuleni argued that the process that dealt with the nominations was agreed to at the Central Committee (CC) and all regions were represented at that structural meeting and therefore the region was not in favour of re-opening nominations.
KZN supported Ekurhuleni’s argument that “there were processes put in place and agreed upon by the CC,” and for Hlanganani to want to change the process was way out of bounds. The table called for the two motions to come closer to each other.
Mpumalanga intervened. They said that the one view (“˜re-open’ view) was in terms of the Constitution and the other view was about process and “the process cannot be relegated to the requirement of the Constitution”.
Wits Central West called for Hlanganani to tell Congress the reason why they wanted the process to be re-opened.
They told Congress that they had a name which they wanted put onto the nomination list. Their reason was not convincing because swords continued to be drawn on the two views – to re-open nominations or not to re-open them.
There was a big stalemate until the General Secretary stepped in. He took Congress through the processes that culminated in the union deciding to close the nominations’ process 30 days before the Congress.
He then posed a question to those against re-opening of the nominations. “Comrades what do you stand to lose if you don’t afford the opportunity to re-open the nominations? Can’t you act as democrats and allow us to re-open the nominations?”
In the name of unity, the delegates were persuaded to influence one another during lunch to come to some agreement. This they did because after lunch the motion to re-open the nominations was carried. The nominations were re-opened and EISA allocated a desk to deal with the administrative process of this resolution.