RUSTENBURG – Another trade union is being formed in the Rustenburg platinum belt in the North West, announced one of the new union’s founders on Tuesday.

The newly formed Badirammogo Workers Union has a broad scope to operate with a focus on mining, said one of the founders, Tshepo Mekgoe.

“No one is going to stop us. We are going to launch before the end of this year. We are busy with the department of labour [for registering the union] once we are issued with the certificate we will launch,” he said.

Mekgoe, who had 14 years experience in the mining industry, previously worked for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) before he crossed the floor to join the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

He said disgruntled members of Amcu and NUM have shown interest in joining the new union.

“There are things that I may not tell you now, but a number of workers will join us,” Mekgoe said.

He said he believed the downfall of NUM was that it had no competition at all, and he noted: “The same thing is happening with Amcu, it has no competition.”

Amcu toppled NUM as the dominant union in the platinum belt in 2012.

Amcu started to make inroads at Lonmin as early as 2011 but gained popularity after the 2012 wildcat strike, where 44 people were killed, 34 of them mineworkers who were killed on August 16, 2012 during the tragic Marikana incident when police fired at them. Ten people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards were killed a week earlier prior to this incident.

Amcu waged a five-month strike in the platinum belt and during that strike, another union arose, the Workers Association Union (WAU). During the strike WAU encouraged workers to return to work and offered them transport and security to work.

WAU also offered accommodation to workers who fled their homes fearing for their safety during the strike.

The new Badirammogo Workers Union has promised to change the mining industry landscape to benefit local communities and workers within the region’s platinum belt.