"Lies" are being spread in certain mines in Carletonville and Klerksdorp to recruit members to the Congress of the People, NUM said on Tuesday.

National Union of Mineworkers' General Secretary Frans Baleni said "certain individuals" had told workers that provident retirement funds would have been paid to them on November 17, but NUM leadership was preventing this "because they are associated with the ANC".

He said the individuals in the union were telling mineworkers, "they are willing to assist them as Cope".

Application forms to the party and a new union are then handed out, said Baleni.

He said these incidents had been reported mainly at the Anglogold Ashanti mine, as well as some other gold mines in Carletonville and Klerksdorp.

While people had a right to recruit "they must do so on a clean slate".

"We want to prevent this getting out of hand, resulting in loss of lives."

NUM president Senzeni Zokwana said since mineworkers did not earn well and were often in debt, they would fall for misinformation about fund money.

"We don't mind them coming to organise, but once it is based on lies it is a threat to peace and stability at a time the sector is facing problems with the financial sector."

Baleni said NUM had not yet spoken to Cope about the allegations.
"We don't want to create a perception we are preventing them from organising."

He said four people were known to be spreading the "lies", one of them a dismissed NUM leader and three of them people not elected to the  branch structures of NUM. He said these people should be disciplined or corrected, but at the moment "they are on the run".

Baleni said the union had spoken to Anglogold late on Monday. He said a brief would be put out setting the facts straight.

The union would also be meeting with shop stewards in Carletonville on Tuesday afternoon.

Cope spokesman Smuts Ngonyama denied the allegations against the party.
"There is nothing like that. They are lying.  They are just trying to pass the buck."

He said while mineworkers who were members of Cope might try and recruit, the party itself had "no position" of trying to give out information such as that alleged by NUM.
"In terms of position there is nothing like that that I know of," he
said.