Joseph Mathunjwa’s Labour Party will contest by-elections in December — the first time it will be subjected to the electorate after its registration as a political party in February.
The Labour Party failed to meet the Electoral Commission of SA’s deadline for the nomination of candidates for the May 29 polls and after a vigorous court battle was forced to sit out the general election.
The need for more centrist politics in SA has never been more urgent, yet the political, social and economic conditions in the country are creating ripe conditions for extremes to both the right and the left — and more parties are beginning to fill that space.
“Don’t call us left or right, don’t compare us to EFF or MK, we want to be measured as the Labour Party and Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (Amcu). What we know is that this country is on autopilot and something must be done,” Mathunjwa says.
On December 4, the Labour Party, whose policies are still under formulation, will contest by-elections in 12 wards in the Thabazimbi Local Municipality in Limpopo, which was dissolved by the province in October over the deep dysfunction caused by infighting in the ANC-led coalition that is in charge.
Don’t call us left or right, don’t compare us to EFF or MK, we want to be measured as the Labour Party and Amcu
— Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa
It faces a stark test — its entry into the political space in February was viewed with deep scepticism after the dismal failure of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA’s (Numsa’s) worker party since its formation ahead of the 2014 election.
Numsa’s Socialist Revolutionary Workers’ Party did not contest the 2024 election after a humiliating performance in 2019, when it obtained just more than 24,000 votes. This followed a dismal debut in 2014, when it received about 8,300 votes. In the 2021 local election it bombed once more, winning just 5,444 votes.
So why does Mathunjwa think his Labour Party stands a chance? He argues that SA is a “failed state”, and ordinary citizens are no longer fighting against “white monopoly capital” but “black monopoly capital” too. He has experienced it in the mining sector.
“Mines are shedding jobs everywhere, temporary workers in mines are a new threat to our members ... we are also seeing the rise of a new green colonisation,” Mathunjwa says.
Here he is referring to the energy transition, which he says has been labelled “just” but is anything but. “How can the energy transition be just when it is devastating so many communities because of retrenchments?” he asks.
The contest in Thabazimbi is a keen focus for Mathunjwa and the Labour Party, which is hoping to cause an upset to the “status quo” ANC and DA parties. “I spoke at a rally in Thabazimbi and I could not breath, the stench from the sewage was unbelievable. How do people live in those conditions? The ANC has the audacity to put up a gazebo there to win votes ... the arrogance!”
“We are working very hard there, the community has welcomed us,” Mathunjwa says. He dismisses naysayers who dismiss the Labour Party’s prospects. A deeply religious man, he says that if God has appointed the time for his entry into politics, it will undoubtedly succeed.
Still, he concedes the terrain is tough — he has shrugged off advances from NGOs and other opposition political parties to work together. Funding is also difficult to come by. “This is new terrain ... we will be very careful with the new baby we are birthing. We don’t want to be tainted with the failures of other organisations,” he says.
He is hesitant to work with the EFF, which he believes was beginning an ignoble exit from the political space due to its decline in support, or with Jacob Zuma’s MK. “We will see, it is still early days.”
Mathunjwa is taking a huge risk in seeking to morph Amcu into a political vehicle. Aside from conditions in the mining sector eroding union support, Amcu has been under fire from detractors over a lack of internal democracy. Mathunjwa has been its president since its formation after breaking away from the Cosatu-aligned National Union of Mineworkers in 1998.
Another huge hurdle is access to resources. “We don’t have money, but we have been lending our members to other political parties in each election for far too long, it’s time to bring them home.”
December 4 is likely to determine whether the party continues on into the 2026 local election. With Amcu’s 250,000-odd members, Mathunjwa is expecting a big entry into politics. Yet Numsa’s membership stood at 340,000 when its worker party contested the election in 2019 and it won only 24,000 votes. More than 90% of its members voted elsewhere.
It’s a sobering thought.
• Marrian is Business Day editor at large.
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