South Africa's largest-ever legal strike reaches the end of its first week today with no sign of an end to the deadlock – and indications of growing support for the wage stoppage.
The National Union of Mineworkers announced yesterday 10 more mines had joined the national strike in spite of increased police and mine security harassment and a bomb scare. The Anglo American Corporation, however, claimed there had been "a drift back" to work on the mines.
Commenting on this discrepancy, the independent Labour Monitoring Group said: "As in the case of war, the first casualty of the conflict is truth and significantly different claims are being made by the parties. The unwillingness of the mine owners to cooperate with the press and other groups has made independent accurate assessments of the extent of the strike nearly impossible."
The LMG, which conducted surveys in six mining regions, estimated 66 percent of the work force in those areas was on strike. And in a move that is likely to raise the temperature of the dispute, Anglo American has announced it may call in the SA Police to enforce Supreme Court orders evicting strikers from the East Rand Gold and Uranium Company (Ergo) plant and restraining them from reentering it.
At a press conference at Anglo headquarters in Johannesburg last night, Theo Pretorius, MD of Anglo's Transvaal mines, said his company would decide tonight whether to ask police to carry out the court orders granted yesterday. This would depend on whether sabotage stopped at the high-technology plant he said. He claimed there had been 14 serious cases of sabotage since the beginning of the strike.
Anglo representatives also detailed allegations of coercion and intimidation by strikers and shaft stewards at two mines. They said at President Steyn mine in the OFS, mine security had to fire rubber bullets to disperse a "mob" of workers who were controlling the entrance to the hostel and had surrounded and boarded a security vehicle.'
At Vaal Reefs in the Transvaal, mine security allegedly rescued four non-strikers being held in an NUM office. The four claimed they had been held for two days without food. The NUM's 150 members on Rand Refineries – the only gold refinery in the country – were among the latest to join the action, swelling the number of strikers to more than 350 000 on 52 gold and coal mines, according to union figures.
Ramaphosa confirmed reports that striking workers at the Lorraine gold mine in the Free State had returned to work yesterday. He said the NUM had encouraged them to return as only one shaft had stopped work. "We encouraged them to go back and consolidate," he said, adding he had no doubt the entire mine would soon come out on strike.
Ramaphosa said an official at the union's Klerksdorp branch – where 86 members were detained on Wednesday – had noticed two suspicious parcels in the office yesterday morning. One was attached to a battery device. The police were called in and removed the items but had yet to confirm whether they were bombs. Lieutenant H Lourens of the SA Police's public relations division said there was "no such incident. The police did not receive any calls from the NUM, nor did they visit the office and take any parcels away."
Ramaphosa also claimed:
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President Steyn mine security officials attacked strikers. Six who sought refuge in the NUM office there had gunshot wounds and signs of being assaulted. Security officials then burst into the office and removed the six men.
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Police had surrounded the NUM's Free State office and had warned unionists they intended searching the building. Lieut Lemons said this claim was "absolute nonsense".
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In Ventersdorp, 15 NUM members were illegally detained by mine security. A union official's documents were confiscated when he tried to protest. Ramaphosa said strikers were not intimidated by the harassment which "began on the first day of the strike".
In Klerksdorp – the scene of the biggest police clampdown on strikers yet – an interim strike committee had been elected to replace the Western Transvaal NUM officials arrested. Of the 72 arrested on Wednesday and due to appear in court on charges of subversion and conspiracy to commit murder on Monday, 68 were granted bail of R1 000 each. The Labour Monitoring Group noted that both mine owners and the union seemed set for a "protracted struggle" — Jo-Ann Bekker & Hilary Joffe.
This article originally appreared in the Weekly Mail
