An estimated 100 000 miner workers affiliated to Amcu went on strike on Thursday to demand major wage increases.
The mineral resource department will pull out of negotiations in the platinum wage dispute if parties do not come to an agreement next week, Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Saturday.
“On Monday all the parties [mine bosses and Amcu] will be coming back,” he told reporters in Irene, south of Pretoria.
“I am pulling out on Monday if they do not find each other. If they do not find each other I wish them and South Africa luck.”
A inter-governmental technical team will hold a final meeting with the Association for Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) on Monday in an effort to resolve the platinum sector wage strike.
The team would receive feedback on whether the mineworkers accepted an offer currently on the table from mining companies.
The task team was established by Matlhodi in a bid to solve the longstanding wage impasse between the mining union and three platinum producers.
Amcu members at Lonmin, Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum downed tools on January 23 demanding a basic monthly salary of R12 500.
They have so far rejected the companies’ offer that would bring their cash remuneration to R12 500 by July 2017.
The strike is said to have cost the employers R21.2-billion in revenue and employees have reportedly lost R9.4-billion in earnings. –Sapa