Police fired rubber bullets at hundreds of protesting mine workers on Johannesburg’s East Rand on Wednesday.
About 1 000 workers at Aurora Empowerment Systems’ Grootvlei mine became rowdy and started stoning cars, damaging three, spokesperson Thulane Ngubane said.
Police fired rubber bullets and the workers dispersed.
“The confrontation between the police and workers was resolved. We are busy negotiating with the unions now,” he said.
According to Ngubane, workers went on an illegal strike on March 15 following “temporary retrenchments” of 1 500 out of 2 400 workers.
“All we want to do is to lay-off 1 500 workers temporarily for four months, until the company shows… profits, as we are trying to get investors on board.
“The workers will have their jobs back after that, we have shown them documents to guarantee that.”
National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said they were not against temporary retrenchments, but were unhappy because workers had not been paid for the past two months.
“Workers could not go home for Easter because they were not paid. How do they expect workers to agree to lay-offs when they have not been paid?”
Seshoka said five workers sustained minor injuries during the clash with police and were treated on the scene.
“Our members did not stone cars or hold anybody hostage. They went closer to the building because they wanted to hand over their memorandum to management. Managers called the police claiming to be held hostage and when the police got there and they fired rubber bullets,” he said.
Seshoka said the workers were frustrated. All they wanted was their salaries for the past two months.
Ngubane said workers would on Thursday be paid for the few days they worked in March and 75% of February salaries owed to them.
“They went on illegal strike on March 15. Surely they do not expect us to pay them a full salary for that?”
The mine is owned by Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zondwa, and a nephew of President Jacob Zuma, Khulubuse Zuma. — Sapa