TUESDAY, 9.30AM
NEW JCI chairman Mzi Khumalo faces his toughest test yet, with the probable decision to retrench thousands of workers at Randfontein Estates, after the mine posted a R2,9-million loss in the first quarter of this year.
A company spokesman agreed that “downsizing” talks have been held with the National Union of Mineworkers for several weeks, and that an expert study commissioned by the union will shortly be tabled. But union spokesman Thabani Mngomezulu said the company had not waited for the report, and was already retrenching workers: “Capital does not know the colour of the skin. Mzi Khumalo has lots to do, but the workers have lost faith in him,” he said.
The union says it expects as many as 8 000 workers to be retrenched: management sources have put the figure at around 4 000. The union also said that Randfontein had retrenched workers in large numbers every year since 1994.