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The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members gather for a mass meeting at Gold One Mine in Spring on the East Rand on February 26, 2025.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) says it does not recognise Workers’ Day and wants the day to be celebrated on August 16.
The union says while it respects the importance of the holiday as it lays bare the struggles of workers, however, it is calling for Workers’ Day to be moved.
On August 16, 2012, 34 miners who were participating in a six-week wild strike in Sibanye-Stillwater mine, formerly Lonmin platinum mine, were shot dead by police at Marikana near Rustenburg.
Amcu President, Joseph Mathunjwa says, “So we are still calling on the government to recognise the 16th of August of 2012 as a Workers’ Day in South Africa because it has got its own history of which it informed the struggle of the workers, in particular mineworkers in South Africa fighting for economic emancipation.”
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