Striking miners at Marikana. (Madelene Cronje, M&G)
"Lonmin has suspended eight employees following investigations into allegations of membership fraud. Three of them are currently in the middle of disciplinary hearings, while the remaining five face hearings this week," said company spokesperson Sue Lindsell-Steward on Tuesday.
They allegedly falsified stop orders to make it appear that members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) had left the union and joined the National Union of Mineworkes (NUM).
The platinum giant reportedly said at the weekend that about 200 stop orders were falsified in this way and submitted to Lonmin's human resources department.
The latest development comes after an NUM leader was shot dead in front of union offices and another injured at the Marikana mine on Monday, possibly in retailiation for the killing of a member of Amcu last month. Tensions were further heightened after Business Day reported that Lonmin had agreed to grant union threshold rights to Amcu, effectively shutting NUM out of collective bargaining.
Power struggle
The effect of the fraud would have been to relay membership fees from Amcu to the NUM, while also helping the NUM regain its representation. The NUM has until July 16 to retain its status as a majority union or vacate union offices at shaft level.
Amcu ousted the NUM as the majority union after a wildcat strike in Marikana, North West, last year, commanding 70 percent of unskilled workers and machine operators as members.
Rivalry between the two unions was the backdrop to the police's fatal shooting of 44 people in Marikana in August last year.
Since the wildcat strike in Marikana last year, at least 20 NUM members had been killed, NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka claimed.
During a two-day strike in May, Amcu members demanded that the NUM offices be shut-down and accused the union of membership fraud. The strike followed the death of Amcu regional leader Mawethu Steven.
Call for calm
North West premier Thandi Modise has called on Amcu and the NUM to denounce violence and commit themselves to peaceful coexistence at Lonmin and other mines around Rustenburg.
"There is no place for strong-arm tactics and the use of violence in our labour relation regime that allows freedom of association," she said.
Modise called on workers to remain calm and help police in their investigations to unmask those behind the recent spate of violence.
NUM response
Lonmin's action was the latest harassment of NUM members by the company, the union claimed.
"Our shop stewards are now harassed by the company under the pretext of rigging membership, an allegation which the NUM rejects with the contempt it deserves," National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said in a statement.
Seshoka said some of the suspended employees were NUM shop stewards, but he could confirm how many.
"For months on end, NUM members have complained that they have been made to join other unions without their knowledge, which management found to be the truth," he said.
"Whilst the so-called management has been aware who the culprits are, the company has not been able to bring any of them to a disciplinary hearing." – Sapa