The National Union of Mine workers (NUM) has accused the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union(Amcu) of holding its members hostage and expressed health concerns over miners who haven't had food or water since Sunday at Gold One Mine in Springs, Ekurhuleni. The mine's head of legal Ziaad Hassam said yesterday that 41 miners belonging to Amcu were holding 500 NUM members against their will underground. It's alleged that Amcu representatives blocked access to the mine and prevented workers from leaving.

NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said their members are kept underground unwillingly. "Five hundred and forty-three members are held hostage by people who have been armed since Sunday night when they went for a night shift underground. So, they have not been allowed to come back to the surface. This is not just a hostage situation our members are kidnapped against their will. We do not know what the motive is for holding our members hostage or kidnapping our members. It also includes vulnerable women. It's very painful what is happening right now," she said. But Amcu said mine workers were staging a "sit-in" and are now set to meet with Gold One Group's management to discuss a way forward to get more than 500 miners back to the surface.

Amcu said that none of the 500 miners would come to the surface until they were recognised. Amcu general-secretary, Jeff Mphahlele, said that the mine management was refusing to recognise them, even though they had been recruiting at the mine since January. "The management, including NUM, have been delaying and not wanting to process our stop orders. Our challenge is that we want organisational rights in the mine." Gold One Group chief executive officer, Jonathan Hericourt, said that while the union claims it has been recruiting, the group has not been able to verify this yet. He said that they had been in negotiation with Amcu since Monday night but had not yet reached an agreement, with negotiations set to continue on Tuesday morning. Mphahlele said, "We are here at Gold One where we are trying to negotiate with management to get those members that are underground, it is the night shift that does not come out this morning during the knock-off time. The issue at stake here is that they are lamenting about the situation of the organisational rights," Mphahlele added.