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26 February, 2007
Two platinum strikes in South Africa ended last week, but workers and community members, behind the banner of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers, began another protest on 22 February at yet another platinum operation in the country’s North West. Thousands of NUM members and villagers marched on the Bafokeng-Rasimone Platinum Mine (BRPM), delivering a memorandum to senior management of the mine.
That ultimatum demands a halt to casualisation and the rampant use of contract labourers at BRPM, aiming to make them permanent employees. The 500 miners at BRPM demand the dismissal of the human resources manager, who they accuse of discrimination and nepotism.
The memorandum of grievances also demands employment opportunities for local people, and a halt to the victimisation of NUM shop stewards. NUM has given management seven days to respond. “As the NUM, we will leave no stone unturned and are determined to bring this exploitation to its knees,” stated NUM Regional Organiser Itumeleng Mayoyo.
BRPM is jointly owned by AngloPlatinum Ltd., a subsidiary of mining giant Anglo American, and the Royal Bafokeng Nation, an indigenous tribe, which owns vast land holdings in the North West.
A 24-day strike by 3,000 members of the NUM against another black economic enterprise platinum operation ended on 18 February. That also involved AngloPlatinum, the world’s biggest platinum miner, in an enterprise called Modikwa near the town of Limpopo. AngloPlats’ partner there is African Rainbow Minerals Ltd., a 41.5% stakeholder in the operation.
Central among issues were wage differentials between black miners and white miners, and Modikwa’s insistence on continuous operations. The NUM called off the strike with the issue of continuous operations still on the table. The company’s continuous operations demand – in which the mine is to operate every day including on weekends with the exception of national holidays – will now be discussed between the NUM, Modwika, and South Africa’s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration.
NUM contends that operating continuously violates the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and the country’s Mines Act. Earlier in February, the wage gap issue between black miners and white staff was resolved when pay adjustments were made for black workers. The NUM also won travel subsidies for miners during the strike.
A second platinum mining strike near Rustenberg in the North West State also ended late in the evening on 18 February. The strike against Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. had started on 16 February over health and safety issues and, more importantly, inferior and discriminatory care at the company’s hospital.
Miners sought the dismissal of Dr. John Andrews, who had intentionally withheld anti-retroviral HIV/AIDS drugs to workers. On 23 January, 15,000 miners and community members had marched on the hospital in protest of inferior health care and the doctor’s negative behaviour.
The situation was intensified following the march when ImPlats, the world’s second largest platinum producer, allowed Andrews to address the media rather than respond to the miners’ list of health grievances and demands. Those included inclusion of miners’ family members in the company’s health care plan, as well as extending the plan to service providers outside the Rustenberg area.
The strike ended only after Implats agreed to withdraw Andrews’ statement and management agreed to address all the grievances presented to them.