The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Sunday appealed to Harmony Gold to take action against “thugs who have decided to target our members for reporting on duty” at the Kusasalethu gold mine on the West Rand.
The NUM strongly condemned the “escalation of systematic attacks” on its members, allegedly by Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) “thugs who are exploiting the strike situation with acts of crime and barbarism in Kusasalethu”, NUM Carletonville regional secretary Mbuyiseli Hibana said.
“Four members of the NUM working for Kusasalethu mine in Carletonville had their houses and cars torched last night [Saturday]. This happened in Wedela township where a house and a car belonging to two different members were set alight. The same thing happened in Deelkraal residence owned by Kusasalethu mine where a house and a car belonging to two different members were also set alight,” Hibana said.
“This happened following the dismissal of Amcu leaders by the company on matters related to misconduct. The Amcu members supporting their leadership went around on the 9 November 2017 in the evening stopping workers from reporting for duty. This happened again in the morning of the 10 November 2017. This led to our members losing their shifts due to intimidation by Amcu members, who some of them are on suspension due to ill-discipline,” Hibana said.
“We want the company to take action against these thugs who have decided to target our members for reporting on duty on the days specified above. This intimidation against members of the NUM has been happening for some time now and our members have reached a stage where they cannot tolerate it anymore,” he said.
Hibana said the incidents had been reported to police and he urged NUM members to remain calm while police were investigating.
Earlier on Sunday, the NUM said a NUM-Youth Structure (NUM-YS) leader’s house had been burnt in Orange Farm, in the Vaal area south of Johannesburg, allegedly by Amcu members.
The NUM-YS was disturbed and concerned by the recent acts of crime and barbarism that it observed in Orange Farm where its youth leader Tebogo Litelu’s house was burnt down by “alleged Amcu hooligans on Friday”, NUM-YS national secretary Bonginkosi Mrasi said.
Litelu was branch chairman of Vaal Sanitary, a manufacturing company under construction where the NUM was organising, he said.
“This is a direct attack to NUM and its members with the view to shift or destroy NUM in all workplaces where we organise, and as the NUM-YS we are prepared to fight back with all resources we have to defend the NUM and its entire membership,” Mrasi said.
“We further call for local law enforcement agencies to take this matter seriously and all perpetrators must be brought to book as soon as possible. It is very sad that these hooligans are fighting fellow workers instead of fighting their class enemy which is the employer,” Mrasi said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
