by Our News Desk

SOUTH AFRICA’S National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) accused three firms of union busting yesterday.

Among them are Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin — formerly British company Lonhro — both of which were blamed by the NUM for violence in 2012.

NUM members were killed in clashes in the run-up to the Marikana massacre. Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members had been let onto mine property by management in an attempt to usurp the established union.

In a statement issued yesterday, the NUM national executive accused both “yellow union” Amcu and Implats of treating its representatives like “skunks.”

It said the company had suspended its disciplinary code and procedures to allow Amcu members to get away with the attempted murder of NUM reps.

“Those who are cited as perpetrators of such acts are still working for the company as if nothing has happened,” the NUM said.

The union also condemned the sacking of one of its members at Lonmin merely for distributing NUM calendars to colleagues.

Lonmin is the former owner of the Marikana platinum mine in North West province, where 10 NUM members, police and security guards were killed during a bitter strike and 34 Amcu members were shot dead by police.

The union also accused Harmony Gold at Kusasalethu in Gauteng province of trying to push the NUM out in favour of Amcu.

NUM membership has fallen from 206,000 to 198,000 since last June, which the union attributed to an ongoing jobs cull in the crisis-hit industry, which is the backbone of South Africa’s economy.