The week-long strike at the Northam Platinum mine in Limpopo is expected to end on Tuesday afternoon, both the mine and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said.
NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said the union and the mine had finally made an agreement on the ”thorny” issue.
”The issue has been resolved. The mine has agreed to suspend the two industrial relations officials.”
He said the union was waiting for a written confirmation from the mine on the suspension of the two.
After we’ve received the written confirmation, we’ll then brief our members about the outcome of yesterday’s [Monday] negotiations and a decision will be made on whether to end the strike or not.”
Seshoka said if the mine suspended the two officials, workers would go back to work on Tuesday afternoon.
Workers went on strike on April 29 demanding the removal two officials whom they accused of dismissing black workers for offences that their white counterparts were not being fired for.
Workers also demanded the relocation of Northam chief executive Glyn Lewis from the mine to the company’s head office in Johannesburg.
Lesiba said Lewis’s relocation was not resolved in Monday’s negotiations but workers believed it could be solved by the mine authorities.
Northam spokesperson Marion Brower said the mine expected workers back to work soon.
”Monday’s talks went well. We believe workers will be back to work as soon as they have been briefed by the union on our agreements.”
She said the two officials would be suspended and a probe in the industrial relations procedures would be conducted.
The mine had decided to put aside the court interdict granted to them to end the strike by the Johannesburg High Court on Monday
”I don’t think it [interdict] has been served [on the union]. We have decided to handle this matter through negotiations as talks have been positive,” Brower said. — Sapa