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Mantashe: NUM, Amcu must stick to rules

Johannesburg - Rival unions NUM and Amcu must play by the rules when recruiting members, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

"With the rivalry of the unions in the Rustenburg area and in the mining industry, we have a principle in that matter," he told reporters in Johannesburg.

"We don't think employers should be biased in favour of NUM over Amcu. What we are saying is that in any area where there is more than one union in a company, all of them must play according to rules."

Last Tuesday, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members went on an unprotected strike, demanding that the National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM) offices at Lonmin's Marikana mine be shut down.

They suspended the strike on Wednesday after Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa ordered them to return to work.

On Friday, Lonmin [JSE:LON] said it had started de-recognising the NUM, following significant changes in union membership at its operations.

Mantashe said the African National Congress's national executive committee had discussed conflict between rival unions.

He said union members should not "point guns" at people and force them to sign membership forms.

"Its not a question of whether there is rivalry, therefore we hate Amcu. It is not our business, they have a right to exist," Mantashe said.

"There must be no assassinations because of rivalry. Unions must out-organise each other."

Mathunjwa reportedly threatened, at a memorial service for slain Amcu North West organiser Mawethu Steven, to lead a march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, in protest against the "union-bashing" and killings in Rustenburg.

Steven was to have testified before the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, which is probing the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people - 34 of them shot dead by police - in strike-related unrest in Marikana in August.

He was killed at a tavern in the informal settlement near Marikana, on May 11. The same day, a NUM shop steward and his twin brother were killed in the informal settlement of Nkaneng, Marikana.

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