Independent News reports that UDM leader Bantu Holomisa has warned the Department of Labour (DoL) against its plan to deregister the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), saying it would trigger instability.
On Wednesday, the DoL published a notice in the Government Gazette indicating its plan to cancel Amcu’s registration. The influential union was a breakaway from the ANC-aligned National Union of Mineworkers and rose to prominence in the labour unrest that preceded the 2012 Marikana massacre. Holomisa said the move by the DoL smelled of political machinations aimed at taming the union. He called on the department to come clean about the reasons for the cancellation of Amcu, which mainly organises in the platinum sector, but also in the gold and other mining sectors. Holomisa furthermore observed that the cancellation, which would effectively disable the union from organising in mines or collecting subscription fees from its members, would create instability in the country and the mining industry, as members of the union would be left without a trade union to belong to. “It is going to create serious tension and instability in the mining industry and in the country. These members will take to the streets because that is what they know,” Holomisa stated.
- Read the full original of Siviwe Feketha’s report on Bantu Holomisa’s views at Independent News
Read too, Amcu ‘is not a genuine trade union’, so here’s what happens now, at Business Insider
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