Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has admitted that the trade union federation is in trouble, The Star reported on Friday.

"Cosatu today is in tatters and absolutely in trouble. Factionalism is tearing it apart," Vavi was quoted as saying at a memorial service in Sasolburg on Thursday.

"When we see splintering, workers are set up against each other."

He said the cause of corruption in South Africa was because people had allowed individuals to wantonly abuse their powers.

"Let me tell you why. In our movement, we have allowed individuals to become more powerful than the organisation. They [the powerful] know how to manipulate us by praising themselves," he said.

"The supremacy of the organisation is now coming second to the supremacy of individuals and their factions."

Vavi was making his first public appearance since the expulsion of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Saturday.

Cosatu deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said Numsa would have to wait ten months before appealing.

At its special congress in December, Numsa decided not to support the ANC in the May general elections, which went against Cosatu's policy.