WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM
TENSIONS are running high at the Amandebult section of the Amplats mine near Rustenburg, where 5 000 workers have been on strike since Monday, and and four people, including a manager, are under investigation for torture.
There have been repeated clashes between the National Union of Mineworkers and a populist faction called the Mouthpiece Workers’ Union, which called a strike on Monday after one of its members was fired for fraud. Fighting broke out yesterday and six people were injured when NUM members attempted to go back to work.
Last week the NUM called on police to intervene on the mine after two NUM members were tortured by Mouthpiece members running a “tribal court” in which they had been accused of adultery. The NUM accused mine management of collusion in the torture, saying it happened in full view of mine management who even supplied a company vehicle to deliver one of the victims to the court.
Anglo American Platinum announced yesterday that a manager and three Mouthpiece members have been suspended pending a disciplinary inquiry into the torture. Mine production has dropped by a fifth in the past three days.