About 3 000 gold miners from Anglo's Vaal Reefs No 6 shaft, who defied management's warnings to return to work or face closure of the marginal mine, queued all yesterday to receive their final payments. And according to the National Union of Mineworkers, about 4 000 workers from Anglo's Western Holdings No 1 shaft were preparing to follow suit. They were expected to prepare to go home, notwithstanding Anglo's threat to close the marginal shaft if they did not return to work by this morning.
In a related development, the NUM claimed about 24 000 workers at four Gencor mines in Evander had been ordered to return to work by last night or lose their jobs. This was denied by Gencor. Earlier this week the NUM tried to persuade striking miners to return to work on marginal shafts – as these unproductive or low-grade mines would naturally be the first to be closed during a strike. About 700 workers on Amcoal's Laadau colliery – scheduled to be closed in March – chose to resume work on Tuesday to avert the mine's immediate closure.
Cyril Ramaphosa, NUM general secretary, said he respected the decision as it had been taken democratically by workers. Nevertheless, a NUM representative said the decision by the 7 000 workers at the Vaal Reef and Western Holdings shafts to lose their jobs rather than break the strike signaled worker determination and support for the wage strike.
A Gencor representative – responding to the NUM's claims that Evander workers had been given an ultimatum to return to work or be fired – denied the union's claims. He said that as was the "accepted practice", workers had been informed they were "absent from work without permission" and failure to return to work by yesterday would result in disciplinary hearings. NUM queried the basis for Gencor's threat and reiterated the strike was legal.
This week began with signs of a thaw in the cold war between strikers and mine owners which has characterised the strike since it began on Sunday night, August 9. On Monday, the NUM accepted Anglo's offer to discuss mine violence, which has claimed one life and injured about 300 workers in the first 11 days of the strike. But the following day NUM walked out of the talks in protest before they had reached any resolution, after hearing 15 strikers at the entrance to the President Steyn Gold Mine had been injured by police firing rubber bullets and wielding sjamboks.
Anglo denied the police action had taken place on mine property, or that mine management had called in the police. But although both parties declared their willingness to continue discussions, the talks were not resumed this week and the deadlock resumed. Before the union walked out, the NUM had signalled its willingness to accept Anglo's proposals to end violence – which included ensuring union officials and management had access to mines and hostels – but considered them insufficient to ensure a return to peace.
Anglo, on the other hand, went some way towards meeting only one of the union's demands, agreeing to a conditional demobilization of mine security. Incidents of strike-related violence reported this week included:
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Anglo's claims that a pipeline supplying water to the Ergo plant was sabotaged, resulting in a lost throughput of about 2 000 tons.
This is article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail
