Mining Weekly reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will celebrate its fortieth anniversary at the old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo, on 4 December.

Established in 1982 in Klerksdorp (now Matlosana), the NUM was initially led by general secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, president James Motlatsi and deputy president Elijah Barayi, becoming one of the fastest growing unions in the world with a membership over 300,000 mineworkers in the 1980s. The NUM became a key stakeholder in the formation of the country’s biggest federation of unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in 1985. In less than a year of its formation, the NUM was recognised by the then Chamber of Mines as the union representing mineworkers in categories one to eight employees in August 1983. Subsequently, the NUM extended its scope of operation to cover energy, particularly for Eskom and construction employees, in the early 2000s. It further extended its scope to the metal workers sector from 2019 and now operates in the mining, energy, construction and metal and allied industries. The NUM, since formation, aligned itself with the African National Congress. As one of its historical events, the NUM organised the 1987 gold mine strike, which took 21 days to resolve.

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