The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) plans to ask its members to down tools on December 4 to protest against a spate of deaths in the country’s mines, the president of the union said.
Senzeni Zokwana, the president of the 300 000-strong NUM, unveiled the date of the planned action in a speech at a congress of global miners’ unions, which started in Thailand on Thursday, a statement said.
The NUM had previously not disclosed the date, pending a go-ahead to stage the strike against mounting deaths in the world’s largest producer of gold and platinum, which the NUM has termed a ”genocide”.
NUM officials in Johannesburg said on Friday the union will meet mining companies and an arbitration authority, which could give the go-ahead for the union next Tuesday to ask its members to strike.
More than 180 workers have been killed this year in rockfalls, explosions or buried underground during earth tremors in mines owned by some of the world’s biggest mining firms. About 200 workers were killed in mines last year.
A strike could cripple big miners, including gold producers AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and the world’s top two platinum producers, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, all of which have had accidents or deaths at their mines in recent weeks.
”How many more deaths, anguish, and sorrow must be visited upon innocent mineworkers, their families, and the communities in which they live before we can say enough is enough?” asked Zokwana, who is also president of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM).
Zokwana’s NUM has planned a one-day strike on December 4 across the entire mining sector of South Africa to protest the lack of regard for health and safety by mining companies operating in the mineral-rich nation, the ICEM statement said.
The strike would mark a total shutdown of all mines in South Africa, and be the first such nationwide safety action by thousands of workers.
Should the strike go ahead, it would coincide with the launch by the government of a nationwide safety audit due to start in December on more than 700 mines. — Reuters