One full day’s production has been lost as a result of a strike by 21Â 000 workers at Harmony gold mines in the Free State.
Harmony spokesperson Ferdi Dippenaar said on Thursday that workers had gone on strike on Wednesday evening as a result of unresolved issues with the company, which he said were “not of national importance” and were unrelated to recent retrenchment issues in the mining industry.
“This has nothing to do with retrenchments, the strike certificate was issued for unresolved issues,” he said.
However, chief executive Bernard Swanepoel said on Wednesday that the recently served retrenchment notices, as a result of planned restructuring, had triggered the strike action.
Dippenaar said negotiations would resume on Tuesday, following the Easter weekend, as the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) would not be available before then.
With a production of about 5Â 000 ounces of gold per day and 3,2-million per annum, the mine would lose roughly R1-million each day.
He said the company would bring to the negotiation table a “willingness to resolve disputes” and that resolving these issues quickly was the first priority.
The mining company was served with a strike notice after mediation by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration failed.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said on Thursday morning that the union was fully in support of the strike.
Cosatu backed the union’s demands for a substantial pay rise, improvement in the conditions at the mine hostels, larger housing allowances for workers who don’t live at the mines and a guarantee that miners who die of illness or are killed underground are replaced by relatives.
He said the NUM was acting on behalf of all workers in their fight to stem the rising tide of unemployment and “attacks on jobs and workers livelihoods must not go unchallenged”.
This danger was highlighted by the recent quake that affected the Stilfontein mine.
At Harmony Gold mines, 4Â 914 workers might be laid off. De Beers is mentioning 1Â 270 retrenchments and Kumba, 400.
On Tuesday, the provisional liquidation of Buffelsfontein Gold Mines Limited left 6Â 500 pairs of hands idle.