EMSIE FERREIRA, Pretoria | Saturday 7.00pm.
SOME 5000 South African gold mine workers marched on the British High Commission and the Swiss embassy in Pretoria on Saturday to protest at central bank gold sales which have sent the gold price plummeting.
Wearing shirts bearing the slogan “Not an Ounce More”, the workers blamed the Bank of England’s auction of 25 tonnes of gold 10 days ago for the potential loss of thousands of jobs in South Africa’s gold industry.
Chamber of Mines head Bobby Godsell, who flew in from London where he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the British treasury to halt further auctions, led the march and handed memorandums to the Swiss ambassador and British diplomats.
“They made it understood that they are going on with their sales, so we have to go on with our struggle,” he told journalists.
“Eighty thousand jobs is too high a price to pay for running the UK treasury in a certain way.”
Godsell told British and Swiss diplomats he hoped they “would take seriously” the memorandum which stated that gold auctions were “reckless and irresponsible.”
The Swiss ambassador to Pretoria, Robert Mayor, personally accepted a copy of the document and said Switzerland would do all it could to ensure that its gold reserve sales were done in a “transparent” manner.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) president James Motlatsi, who travelled to London with Godsell, lashed out at the British government, saying officials had deliberately given their delegation the run-around.
The march was exceptional in that black miners and white mining industry workers protested together, united in their fear of further job cuts after six gold mines have warned that they plan to fire a total of 11700 workers.
“It is no longer a black and white thing. We are all in this together and we are all in trouble if this goes on,” said Albert Mebenya, who has been a gold miner for 20 years and has a large family to support.
It is estimated that every miner supports eight relatives.
About 80000 jobs in South Africa — the world’s largest gold producer — are threatened by the downswing in the gold price, according to NUM, the country’s biggest mining union, and the mining houses. — AFP