21 August 2025
MEDIA RELEASE
SUMMARY: The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) notes the collapse of Murray & Roberts into liquidation after more than 120 years, leaving more than thousands of workers and their families facing joblessness. The Union says the failure is not just about one company, but reflects the destruction of the construction industry through government neglect, corruption and the lack of sustained infrastructure investment. The Union is calling for a moratorium on retrenchments, a state-led programme to sustain construction capacity, and strict conditions linking infrastructure budgets to local jobs, skills development and fair treatment of workers.
Murray & Roberts, one of the major South African engineering and construction companies, has collapsed into liquidation after more than 120 years of existence. This follows a long period of it being under business rescue and failed attempts to salvage the group through asset sales.
AMCU has put forward that the collapse is not just the story of a single company, but a reflection of the destruction of our construction industry, which has been strangled by government neglect, tender corruption, and the failure to invest in infrastructure and industrialisation.
At the time of its entry into business rescue, Murray & Roberts employed around 5,300 workers, a substantial decrease from its earlier peak of around 10 000 in 2021. Under the terms of the purchase by Differential Capital, approximately 30% of these jobs were expected to be lost, putting around 1 600 hardworking employees at immediate risk of retrenchment.
“This is not just about one employer,” said AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa. “It is about the wholesale destruction of decent jobs and skills in the construction sector. Thousands of workers and their families face an uncertain future because of government’s betrayal of itsown promises of infrastructure-led growth. Workers are always the first to pay for the failures of capital and the State” , he explained.
“We have had a long relationship with Murray & Roberts over the years, both in mining construction and civil construction where they were active”, said Mathunjwa.
“AMCU organised thousands of members in their projects, and we know the contribution that workers made to building the country’s infrastructure. To see these livelihoods destroyed by mismanagement and neglect is a tragedy that cannot be measured in rands and cents”, he said.
“Apart from job losses and losses of livelihoods, one of our big concerns is about the brain drain caused by the expected loss of this expertise,” Mathunjwa warned. “Generations of knowledge in complex engineering, mining construction, and large-scale civil projects are simply being erased. And on top of that, you have breadwinners losing their jobs and families left without a livelihood. It is a double tragedy: the collapse of industry capacity and the destruction of human dignity”, he added.
“It must be said clearly,” Mathunjwa added. “This insolvency is directly linked to the ANC-led government’s failure to invest in infrastructure over decades. Instead of building powerstations, water systems, railways, and roads, they chose to loot the fiscus and enrich their friends. Every year we were told that infrastructure would be the engine of growth, and every year the budgets were stolen, mismanaged, or underspent. Workers are now paying the price of this betrayal with their jobs and their futures.”
“If we had a responsive government, they could have bought Murray & Roberts and turned it into a bulk infrastructure state-owned enterprise. They could have employed all this expertise, extended the Department of Public Works, and built the hospitals, schools, and railways that our country needs. Instead, as we have seen with ArcelorMittal, there is no leadership, no national interest – only self-interest by those in power”, he said.
The liquidation follows years of crisis in the construction sector. Once dominated by giants like Murray & Roberts, Group Five, Aveng, and Basil Read, the industry has now been hollowed out. Instead of rebuilding the sector, government allowed tender cartels, delayed payments, and the outsourcing of critical projects to politically connected middlemen and “tenderpreneurs”.
Over the past decade, public spending on infrastructure has consistently fallen short of thelevels required to drive growth and create jobs. Between 2015 and 2018, investment averaged just under 6% of GDP, and current projections remain around 5.4%, which is barely half of the 10% target set by the National Development Plan.
Public-sector capital expenditure peaked at R283 billion in 2016 but declined to R233 billion by 2023, reflecting years of underinvestment. While government has announced largepipelines of projects, the reality is that delivery lags far behind announcements, with funds often underspent or diverted or stolen.
The collapse of Murray & Roberts comes at a time when unemployment is already at recordlevels, with the construction sector shedding jobs quarter after quarter. AMCU demands anurgent national response, including a moratorium on retrenchments in the sector; a state-led programme to sustain construction capacity; and strict conditions linking infrastructure budgets to local jobs, skills development, and fair treatment of workers.
“The liquidation of Murray & Roberts is the loudest alarm bell yet,” Mathunjwa said. “If government does not act now, the construction industry will be reduced to ashes, and with it the dreams of millions of unemployed South Africans. We refuse to stand by while workers are sacrificed on the altar of corruption, incompetence, and profit”, Mathunjwa concluded.
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For more information or media interviews, contact AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa.