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Representatives from South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers marched to AngloGold Ashanti’s (JSE:ANG) head office in Johannesburg to protest against the company’s decision to cut 8,500 jobs at its Carletonville operation.
Concerned about the steps taken by the world’s third-biggest gold producer, who said it is uneconomical to mine Carletonville’s shafts, and by Bokoni Platinum Mine’s plan to cut over 2,600 permanent jobs by next month, NUM’s president Piet Matosa is threatening with a general strike in coming days.
Sibanye Gold also announced it will restructure operations at its Cooke and Beatrix mines, a move that could affect 7,400 of its employees and 3,000 contractors.
Despite the fact that Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has been implicated in the Gupta family scandal related to undue political influence in the South African government by the Oakbay owners, the labour movement wants both him and President Jacob Zuma to intervene as soon as possible.
Yet, Zwane held a meeting last Friday with Sibanye chief executive, Neal Froneman, and the only thing he said following the encounter was that he was “concerned by the retrenchment announcements” and that he wanted stakeholders “to be more responsible in how these planned retrenchments are announced.”
NUM, a union with more than 300,000 affiliate members, dubs the current situation “a jobs bloodbath” carried out as a political move against workers. The organization is also worried about the possibility of illegal mining activities proliferating across the country as people find themselves unemployed.
NUM strongly condemns blackmails unleashed by Sibanye Gold, AngloGold Ashanti and Bokoni Platinum mine in announcing massive retrenchments pic.twitter.com/g1y6p4M7Tq
— NUM (@NUM_Media) August 3, 2017
6 Comments
Robert Mugabe
The brave workers of the NUM should put pressure on the ANC to nationalise the mines. Here in my country Zimbabwe we sucessfully liberated our natural resources from the control of the white man. Including food production. Be brave Zuma and the ANC. You too can have a great country like mine. Everyone here is slim and fit except for the part people. We might have no economy and no money but we own all of nothing.
Enoch Pax
You just replaced the corrupt white man for a black one. Mugabe like your namesake is one of the most corrupt dictators in Africa. The white men in African governments are long gone being replaced with black corrupt dictators with deep pockets. Replace them honest and decent black men.
Sean Troy
Surely this is trolling? I think it’s right that Zimbabwe began to reclaim land from a privileged minority, but not steal it and since then Mugabe has almost gone out of his way to make things worse. Zimbabwe doesn’t even have a currency anymore.
Gary
Yes Robert, you have also proved that time travel is possible! look at your country it is 30 years behind the rest of the world
JoeNormal
That’s what happens when workers get paid more than they’re worth because of union activities…….they wind up unemployed, and/or the mine shut down. Mining companies are there to make a profit for their shareholders, not to keep people employed, something that unions worldwide, seem not to understand.
PRINCE A D GAISIE
It is cost of production that is affecting the large redundancy but we must negotiate for better redundancy packages.