Expelled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi refuses to relinquish his title until a democratically constituted congress takes the decision.

"I will not call myself a former. I am the only general secretary. I am the only one to be democratically elected in a workers parliament," he said.

Vavi received a rousing welcome when he addressed about 200 shop stewards belonging to the nine renegade Cosatu affiliated unions, in Cape Town last night.

Vavi said several attempts to remove him by Sdumo Dlamini's faction had failed but said his affair with a junior staffer had "played right into their hands".

He did not hold anything back as he cited a letter to Numsa by Cosatu, requesting reasons why the union should not be suspended.

Atwell Nazo, p resident of the Food and Allied Workers Union, representing the nine unions, vowed to fight for the soul of the union rather than start a new union.

He also vowed that they would fight Vavi's expulsion using "all the laws in South Africa".