Amcu denies its members involved in 'hostage situation' at Gold One mine

Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa has denied there is a “hostage situation” at Gold One Modder East Mine in Springs, Ekurhuleni. 

Responding to questions from TimesLIVE on Monday, Mathunjwa said: “The night shift refused to come back from underground due to their frustration of their membership applications to Amcu not being processed since March this year,” Mathunjwa said.

“To emphasise the point, around 1,700 of the total of 1,800 employees have completed membership forms to join Amcu, so it is completely nonsensical to claim that anybody is being held hostage when it is clear that Amcu is the outright majority.” he said.

He was responding to claims by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that disgruntled Amcu members have been holding about 543 miners hostage underground since Sunday. 

NUM PWV regional office bearer Xolani Mkhabela had told TimesLIVE NUM representatives were going underground to try to get their members released.

“We are preparing to get our members from underground. We are concerned that till this time there is no proper approach to this situation and our members are in danger,” he said.

He said Amcu is was not a “recognised union in this particular mine”. 

TimesLIVE