JOHANNESBURG - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Congress at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, south of Johannesburg, kicked off with a presentation of membership figures to the 3,000 thousand delegates on Monday.
Cosatu now has more than 2,2 million members, but the federation said it wanted more members to sign up.
Running more than two hours behind schedule, the Cosatu congress started with the adoption of the credentials report.
It outlined how many delegates from each union were part of the congress.
The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) led the way with more than 300,000 members.
Num was expected to nominate a candidate to challenge Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, but despite this Vavi was expected to retain his position.
Vavi received the loudest applause of all leaders attending the conference, including President Jacob Zuma.
The process to start the election process was due to start later on Monday.
(Edited by Zethu Zulu)