AMCU insists it is compliant with labour law

South Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has insisted it remains in compliance with the country’s Labour Relations Act, after the government threatened to deregister the group.

Registrar of Labour Relations Lehlohonolo Molefe said this week he intends to cancel AMCU’s registration after the union violated its constitution by failing to hold a congress to elect new leadership. The group “has ceased to function in terms of its constitution,” and “is not a genuine trade union as envisaged in the act,” he said in a notice.

AMCU will meet Molefe on Tuesday to resolve the issues and has also referred the matter to its legal team to consider alternative options, President Joseph Mathunjwa told reporters Friday.

AMCU holds its national congress every five years, but planning efforts were delayed by a five-month strike at Sibanye Gold, Mathunjwa said. AMCU wrote to the registrar to say the congress had been postponed until September, he said.

Mathunjwa called the government notice “a political attack” on the union, but wouldn’t say who he believed was behind it. “I don’t think AMCU will be deregistered – we are still functioning and will continue to,” he said.