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Cape Town – The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) won’t take responsibility for the attack and death of a National Union of Mineworkers (Num) member, it said on Thursday.
The alleged attack comes as Amcu puts pressure on ANC-alligned Num as the dominant union in the sector. Competition between the unions culminated in the Marikana Massacre in 2012, in which police shot dead 41 striking workers.
In the latest conflict, Num said a union member died on Wednesday after allegedly being attacked by Amcu members on Tuesday.
"We can confirm that Ranthimo Nkosi, a Jonrik contractor at Sibanye Gold Cooke 2, who was attacked and severely assaulted by alleged Amcu members, has passed on after he suffered severe head injuries," Wilson Metsing, Num branch secretary at Cooke operations, said in a statement.
However, Amcu refuted the allegations in a statement on Thursday, saying Num is interfering with a process to get Amcu registered as a union at Sibanye’s mine.
“We will not take responsibility for incidents that happen in the township at night,” Amcu general secretary Jeffry Mphahlele told Fin24.
“Our responsibility will be around the workplace if there was any illegal strike,” he said. “Num is busy interfering with the processes as they are losing members. They were not supposed to stop people or complain while the process is still on. Their duty was to observe like Amcu was also observing,” he said.
Amcu said it hit the 25% membership threshold in March required to obtain organisational rights. “Instead of giving us organisational rights, management refused, stating that Num was disputing that their members had left them in order to join Amcu,” the union said.
Num said on Wednesday that Sibanye Gold should take full responsibility for the member’s death.
“Management at Cooke operations were informed and warned of a plan to attack our members by these hooligans, but they did nothing,” Num said on Wednesday. “They even refused to call the police to come and protect our members.”
