Legal updates and opinions
News / News
Explanatory Note
“No right, including the right to strike, is absolute.”
(AMCU and Others vs Anglo Gold Ashanti and Others)
The right to strike is understood and accepted to be a principal weapon employees use in the struggle to improve their livelihood and to overcome centuries of discrimination. This right is entrenched in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (the Constitution) and therefore cannot be interfered with lightly. However, the right to strike is not absolute and like all other rights, is subject to a limitation.
It is trite that the right to strike is limited by both the Constitution and the LRA. According to section 213 of the LRA, a strike is defined as “partial or complete concerted refusal to work, or the retardation or obstruction of work”. The Constitutional Court has expressed a view that the definition implies that all strikes must be peaceful.
Section 17 of the Constitution reinforces the limitation as it guarantees that “everyone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions”.
Having considered the limitations imposed by both the Constitution and the LRA, the Constitutional Court, albeit in passing, determined that “once strikes cease to be peaceful, they lose the protection of the law”. Because the Constitutional Court is an apex court its obiter dictum carries weight and has a binding effect on the courts below it. Although the obiter dictum was in the context of the secondary strike, we see no reason why a primary strike cannot be interdicted on the same basis.
In light of the obiter dictum, in this case, we are of the view that employers are not limited to interdicting the violence during a strike but can also interdict the strike itself on the basis that it has turned violent.
It remains to be seen whether the historical and/or potential violence will be a factor that a court will consider in interdicting a primary strike.
Latest News
New Code of Good Practice: Dismissal
by Anastasia Vatalidis, Director and Anna Tchalov, Associate On 4 September 2025, the new Code of Good Practice: Dismissal ("New Code") [...]
Balancing union duties and job performance: Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union obo Ntuli v Ferroglobe Silicon Smelters (Pty) Ltd
by Jacques van Wyk, Director and Mike Searle, Candidate Attorney In the construction and engineering sectors, senior employees often [...]
The slippery slope of financial distress
by Eric Levenstein, Director and Head of Insolvency and Business Rescue and Brendan Olivier, Director Negative economic news stories [...]
Reinstatement – not always fair
by Bradley Workman-Davies, Director South Africa’s labour law often elevates reinstatement as the primary remedy for unfair dismissal, but [...]
National Minimum Wage Act: What employers need to know about the 2026 review
by Andre van Heerden, Director, Bradley Workman-Davies, Director and Jacques van Wyk, Director South Africa’s National Minimum Wage Act [...]
Tanzania introduces Trade Mark Rights Recordation for all imports
by Donvay Wegierski, Director and Andreya John, Candidate Attorney As of 1 December 2025, in an initiative administered by the [...]