THURSDAY, 11:00AM:
THE National Union of Mineworkers has blamed Harmony mine management for a strike by an unofficial faction of the union which has formed its own structures and forced ‘official’ shaft stewards from their offices. The union says mine management ‘could have been more proactive” in dealing with grievances in the spirit of agreements signed by the union.
Mine management has meanwhile announced that it is likely to seek a court order to halt the strike, which is costing the mine 48kg of gold per day.
WEDNESDAY, 11:00AM:
ALMOST 7 000 miners went on strike on Tuesday at the Harmony gold mine in the Free State, in protest against a new wages contract signed last month.
The contract links the miners’ wages to the mine’s productivity, which has been flagging in the past few months with Harmony posting disappointing results for the September quarter. The workers have not as yet made any official demands to management, but did not turn up for work on the night shift last night, despite an ultimatum issued by the managing director. About half the workers are on strike, and production at five shafts has been seriously affected.
The National Union of Mineworkers has distanced itself from the strike, announcing yesterday the strikers were mobilised by a non-union faction.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
ZIM MARKET CRASH THE Zimbabwe stock exchange fell a record 668 points or 7,3% on Thursday — just as the IMF had given its nod to President Robert Mugabe’s plans to raise extra funds for war veteran pensions. The slide appears to have been prompted by fears over the pending farm land redistribution, and by a run on the currency by foreign speculators.
IMF takes the heat off Zim (19 Nov)
Zim move to seize white farms
YEAR 2000 JITTERS THE ‘year 200’ dating problem that besets ancient mainframe computers has been declared a national priority, and a task team has been set up to tackle it. Telecommunications minister Jay Naidoo said the problem — caused by an inability of software to deal with dates after the last day of 1999 — could cost the economy between R7 billion and R25 billion. Experts would be seconded from areas such as science, the Reserve Bank, the arms parastatal Denel and the justice department.
BANKS BEHIND ON LOW COST HOUSING LOANS The comercial banks, which agreed with the government in 1995 to provide 50 000 home loans a year into the low-income market, have provided 56 000 loans in a little over two years. The banks said they had come under pressure from the Reserve Bank over granting 100% loans, and from the International Monetary Fund which disapproves of banks financing ‘risky’ social investments.
AGRICULTURE DROPS AGRICULTURE contributed 2% more to GDP in the third quarter this year than in the average third quarter over the past seven years. But the R3,1 billion contribution was 12% down on last year’s record, due to a lower output of field crops
TOURISM UNDERSPENDS TOURISM minister Pallo Jordan underspent his budget for this year by 43%. He said this was due to unfilled vacancies in his department.
Jordan’s statement
POLLUTION PROBEGAUTENG is to set up a task team to probe pollution from mine dumps, following complaints from Soweto that mine dust has caused breathing problems, particularly in schools near the dumps, as well as water pollution.
BOTSWANA LOAN THE Development Bank is to loan Botswana R242 million to help fund a project to carry treated water from the north to the dry Gaborone area in the south. The project will cost R1,5 billion when completed.
MICROSOFT IN HARARE MICROSOFT has opened its first office in Zimbabwe, as part of a strategy to open ten new offices in southern and eastern Africa in the next two years.
JOB CUT AT COPPER CO Gold Fields of South Africa announced on Monday it would be cutting 686 jobs at the O’Okiep copper subsidiary because of the closing of the mine next year and a general restructuring. Gold Fields says it will be offering early retirement and voluntary retrenchment packages.