AMCU Labour Party takes centre stage ahead of local elections – SABC News – Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa’s news leader.

As the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) prepares for the 14th Marikana massacre commemoration, the union’s Labour Party takes the centre stage ahead of this year’s local government elections.

The party was registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in March 2024. It won its first local government by-elections nine months later at the Thabazimbi Local Municipality in Limpopo.

During the Marikana massacre commemoration last year, AMCU president and Labour Party interim leader Joseph Mathunjwa said the formation of the party was as a result of a failed political system and weak opposition parties.

“It is because of this clear failure of the political system and that of the opposition political parties that made AMCU to take a resolution to establish a labour party of South Africa. The labour party was born out of working class struggle, understanding the pain of the Marikana and the struggle of all workers and their families in the quest for a living wage. Just as AMCU was able to deliver 12,500 mandate, the labour party will be able to deliver on its political manifesto. We are taking the shaft to the community. what we were able to change at the workplace, we are going to change in the community.”

The Labour Party was formed following a resolution adopted at AMCU’s 2023 Special National Congress. This followed years of deliberations within AMCU on the need to make a difference in the broader social and economic realities facing South Africans.

Long before the birth of the Labour Party, Marikana was used as a political stage especially since 16 August 2012 massacre where 34 miners were shot and killed by police.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) led by Julius Malema was formed in the area in July 2013, almost a year after the incident. Malema says Marikana is the home of the EFF.

“Marikana is the home of the EFF. We do not relate with you today because it is fashionable to do so. We’ve always been with you and that’s why we are here today to say thank you for voting for the EFF and we are going to make sure that our people in this ward, they get houses, water, and electricity.”

Mathunjwa, who has been the president of AMCU since its inception over two decades ago, now leads the Labour Party to its first local government elections in November. -Reporting by Thabiso Moss

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