Johannesburg - National Union of Mineworkers president Senzeni Zokwana does not hold any position in the police, the NUM said on Monday.
“NUM would like to inform and correct... Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa who said that NUM president Senzeni Zokwana serves in an entity called SAPS bureau,” the union's deputy general secretary Tshimane Montoedi said in a statement.
“Zokwana is the chairperson of the South African Communist Party and a member of the SACP politburo. We think that Mr Mathunjwa was referring to the SACP politburo.”
There is no entity called the SAPS bureau, Montoedi said.
He was reacting to Mathunjwa's allegations against Zokwana during a New Age business breakfast broadcast on SABC2 on Monday.
Rivals Mathunjwa and NUM general secretary Frans Baleni were discussing the ongoing violence in the North West platinum belt where a 17-week-long strike has crippled mine production in the area.
Mathunjwa said his Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union denounced violence.
The police were biased as they did not arrest the perpetrators of crimes, he said referring to the NUM.
“As far as we know, we don't have a person that we have killed,” Mathunjwa said during the debate.
“From 23 of January to now, only Amcu members have been killed.”
He claimed police had done nothing to stop the violence because it was colluding with the NUM.
“It is NUM attacking our members. The president of NUM (Zokwana) is sitting in SAPS meetings,” he claimed.
Baleni rejected the allegation, and said the NUM was not involved in any violence.
Members of Amcu at Lonmin, Impala Platinum, and Anglo American Platinum in Rustenburg and at Northam in Limpopo downed tools on January 23, demanding a basic monthly salary of R12,500.
The strike has reportedly cost the companies over R18.6 billion in revenue and workers more than R8.2bn in earnings. - Sapa