NUM ‘not rattled by rival union’

THE National Union of Mineworkers is not shaken by reports that it is losing members to its rival union Amcu at Lonmin.

The union’s spokesman, Lesiba Seshoka, was adamant that “NUM can never be replaced by AMCU” because it “has no capacity to do so”.

Seshoka described the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union as a “oneman show run by [its president] Joseph Mathunjwa”.

This was in response to events at Marikana yesterday where Lonmin workers burnt an NUM poster bearing pictures of the union’s past and present officials including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC leader Gwede Mantashe.

The stadium was partly green with workers wearing AMCU T-shirts, while the union’s membership forms were distributed and filled in by many workers.

Seshoka said that “people will soon realise that AMCU does not have the capacity and expertise to represent them”.

Asked how his union was going to deal with the loss of members, Seshoka said: “We first want to normalise the situation and we strongly believe that if there’s no violence then no union can compete with NUM”.

“Right now we first need to deal with the violence that Amcu is bringing about.”

AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa was given an opportunity to address Lonmin workers yesterday.

“I hope from now on you know who your leaders are. Leaders who were with you in hard times and came to you under no police guard,” Mathunjwa said to loud cheers.