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/ 1 May 2008

Nine workers dead in mine accident

Nine miners have died after an accident at the Gold Fields South Deep mine near Randfontein in Gauteng, the chief inspector of mines said on Thursday. Thabo Gazi said he received a report about the accident at about 12pm. It is believed that a conveyance in an inclined shaft fell down the shaft after the rope snapped.

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/ 14 March 2008

NUM tackles Fifa

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has had enough of the 2010 stadium labour disputes and has now asked Fifa president Sepp Blatter to intervene. There have been a number of strikes over wage disputes by construction workers working on the Green Point stadium in Cape Town, Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium and the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit.

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/ 4 December 2007

NUM strike takes off, cuts output

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) launched a one-day strike on Tuesday to protest against deaths in the country’s mines, disrupting operations across the world’s top producer of platinum and gold. Almost a quarter of a million union members were set to down tools in the first industry-wide strike on safety, as the death toll mounted to about 200.

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/ 4 December 2007

NUM starts national safety strike

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) launched a one-day national strike on Tuesday to protest against deaths in the country’s mines, disrupting operations across the world’s top producer of platinum and gold. Almost a quarter of a million NUM members are expected to down tools in the first industry-wide strike on safety.

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/ 2 December 2007

SA miners set to strike over safety

South Africa’s powerful mining union will stage its first nationwide strike of the post-apartheid era on Tuesday in a signal that patience over the industry’s safety record has reached breaking point. About 250 000 miners are to down tools in a protest union chiefs say could be intensified if employers do not make significant inroads into the levels of fatalities.

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/ 27 November 2007

Union gets go-ahead for mine-safety strike

South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Tuesday it had been given the go-ahead by authorities to stage a one-day nationwide strike on December 4 to highlight the issue of safety at mines. ”Yes, we are going on strike on December 4, we have been given the go-ahead,” NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said.

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/ 21 November 2007

New Cup strike: Workers cry foul

South Africa’s preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup were dealt a new blow on Wednesday by a fresh bout of strike action by construction workers at one of the host stadiums. The latest strike came as thousands of delegates and journalists began arriving in South Africa ahead of this weekend’s draw in Durban.

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/ 15 November 2007

Work resumes at mine following union violence

Work is to resume at Goldfield’s Beatrix mine in the Free State on Thursday following clashes between workers that saw four people die. ”Employee groups have been in discussions all day and have reached agreement to return to work and deal with the issues they’ve had in an amicable manner,” said a Goldfields spokesperson.

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/ 15 November 2007

Group Five, union locked in 2010 stadium talks

Group Five and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) were on Thursday locked in negotiations in a bid to stop the strike at the Moses Mabhida Stadium from spreading to other 2010 stadiums under construction. NUM national spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said the two sides had met on Wednesday evening and talks had resumed again on Thursday morning.

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/ 2 November 2007

AngloGold shuts mine after worker killed

AngloGold Ashanti shut one of its larger mines in South Africa on Friday after a miner was killed in a rockfall as a miners’ strike to protest against the spate of mine deaths in the country loomed. AngloGold, the world’s third-biggest gold producer, shut its TauTona mine after the worker died in the early hours of Friday.

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/ 18 October 2007

AngloPlat shuts mine shaft after worker killed

The world’s biggest producer of platinum, Anglo Platinum, said on Thursday it shut a shaft at its largest operation on Wednesday after one worker was killed, sending platinum prices to a new record. Simon Tebele, a spokesperson at AngloPlat, could not say for how long the Paardekraal shaft in Rustenburg would be closed.

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/ 4 October 2007

Goldminers face grim wait for rescue

Almost 600 miners of the 3 200 trapped underground have been rescued from Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine on Thursday morning. The cause of the accident was in dispute, the National Union of Mineworkers attributing it to a rock fall, the company saying a pipe carrying chilled water down the shaft, to cool air underground, broke and damaged equipment.