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Rustenburg - The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is reclaiming its members in Rustenburg, an official said on Thursday.
"Our recruitment is moving fairly well. We have moved from 3% to 11% at Lonmin in Marikana," said NUM Rustenburg regional secretary Sydwell Dolokwana.
He was referring to the percentage of the company's workers who were part of the union.
The NUM was the majority union at Impala Platinum's processing plant and was standing at 34% at Anglo American Platinum's Bathopele mine.
He said most of the NUM members who had joined the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) were willing to rejoin the NUM but feared for their lives.
The NUM lost its majority status in 2013 after many mineworkers left to join Amcu. In February, NUM president Senzani Zokwana said the union had been approached by workers wishing to come back to NUM.
"These workers see the NUM as their only home and hope in the current confusion and state of hopelessness that has engulfed the mining sector," said Zokwana.
"Since 2012, thousands of mineworkers no longer have stable income. Many workers can no longer plan their future and those of their children," he said.
"Many workers now confess that these strikes which started since 2012 were less about wages and their quality of life, but more about displacing the NUM for political and populist reasons.
"These strikes have not improved the lives of mineworkers; instead mineworkers are living in the state of fear, hopelessness and economic suffering."
Dolokwana said workers re-joining the NUM would be warmly welcomed.
"The NUM has no intention to turn away workers who see this union as their only home during these difficult times in the history of the mining industry."
