Johannesburg - The government should consider providing security for union leaders, just as it does for high-profile government officials.
This is according to the president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), Joseph Mathunjwa.
He was on Tuesday briefing journalists in Sandton following the killing of Amcu Rustenburg leader Collen Petlele, who was shot at his home on Saturday night.
His death closely followed that of SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) Gauteng secretary Chris Nkosi, who was gunned down by unknown assailants last week.
The home of Satawu president June Dube was petrol-bombed on the same evening.
Mathunjwa believes it’s high time the government stepped in.
“It shouldn’t be just the ministers and the MECs who are in the government, but also I think maybe the leaders of the trade unions. The government should take it very seriously to see how can they assist in terms of protection,” he said.
However, Cosatu said there wasn’t a necessity for such measures.
“We expect the government to ensure the safety of South African citizens,” said Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini, who doesn’t agree with Amcu’s call. Despite this assertion, Cosatu and a number of its affiliate unions have invested in bodyguards for their prominent leaders.
It was the difference in view as expressed by Dlamini and other factors that Amcu felt stood in the way of joint efforts to rid the union environment of violence and tension.
“I think we are supposed to be calling a meeting that will be inclusive with all trade unions, but I think the challenge will be Cosatu. They don’t regard any union which is not a part of them as a union in South Africa, that’s the unfortunate situation,” Mathunjwa said.
Amcu leaders said they were also haunted by constant illegal surveillance carried out on them by unknown people.
“We know this for a fact in a few meetings we had in Cape Town. In one particular hotel, we were informed, and we did experience that we were followed right to the hotel. Also at the airport we did experience such, that there were people who were watching us, whichever angle we were moving. So there is such concerted effort to spy on us. And our meetings are taped, even our mass meetings.”
The union shared with journalists the names of 10 of its leaders and members who were brutally murdered between 2012 and 2015. Most of the killings took place in Rustenburg, followed by the mining town of Burgersfort in Limpopo.
Yet, there have been no arrests so far, a fact which greatly concerns Mathunjwa. He believes that the killings are a deliberate attack on Amcu.
“We want to appeal again to the law enforcement agencies involved in these cases to leave no stone unturned in the investigations of the murders or assassinations,” Mathunjwa said.
The Star