Amcu: Deregistration threat ‘a political attack’

The union is accused of failing to comply with its own constitution, including a failure to submit financial records.

The union’s president, Joseph Mathunjwa, briefed the media in Kempton Park on Friday.

"We have analysed the process leading up to this action and we are more than convinced than ever that it is a political attack on Amcu for being a genuine trade union. We are being punished for being genuinely committed to transforming the lives of the black working class in our country."

Mathunjwa accused the state of colluding with business to attack the union due to its militant stance.

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He said AMCU's books are audited regularly and the union does not have any financial issues.

He added that the union had also informed the labour registrar that it plans to host its national elective congress in September. It had to postpone the planned 2018 conference due to the growing number of branches being opened and the five-month-long strike at Sibanye-Stillwater.

The matter has since been handed over to Amcu's legal representatives, but Mathunjwa says they will still meet with the registrar next week.

"We raised a preliminary point before we submitted the information requested by the registrar. We requested him to address the issue of inconsistency of his interference in the small administrative details of our constitution and to disclose the identity of the person who laid a complaint which led to this investigation."

Manthunjwa said the union finds it suspicious that the registrar had previously been unable to disclose the name of the complainant.

He said a decision to down tools over the issue lies with the union's members.