Johannesburg - The new minister responsible for the mines pledged yesterday to mediate in a crippling platinum strike now in its fifth month and said the government needed to start treating the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) with respect.
Ngoako Ramatlhodi, who was sworn in as mineral resources minister late on Monday, also told a local radio station that mining companies had not done enough “to address the well-being of workers”, particularly in relation to the squalid living conditions around many mines.
The severe impact of the stoppage was underscored by data that showed the economy shrank in the first quarter of this year, the first contraction since the 2009 recession. Mining output fell 24.7 percent, its steepest drop in half a century.
The top platinum producers – Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum and Lonmin – have been through several rounds of wage talks with Amcu but have made little headway in narrowing the gap between their offers and the union’s demands.
The strike, which has lasted almost 19 weeks, is now the longest in the history of South Africa’s mines.
Another round of talks, mediated by a Labour Court judge, kicked off last week and is still going on.
The stoppage – which has cut global platinum output by about 40 percent – is also sliding into violence, with five people killed in the past two weeks.
Ramatlhodi, an advocate who served as the deputy minister of correctional services in President Jacob Zuma’s previous administration, has a reputation as a gruff nationalist who believes whites retain too much control of the economy.
He would start strike mediation as soon as he had been briefed on his new portfolio by department officials, he told Talk Radio 702.
“I will receive a briefing from my team so that I have a sense of the issues that are holding the agreement back and then begin to mediate,” he was quoted as saying by the radio station.
He told Power FM in a separate interview: “Amcu is a legitimate union. According to the laws of this country, they’ve qualified to be a player in the mines where they are playing.
“So government must begin to treat them with respect and give them the dignity that is due to any trade union that qualifies.”
The strike has so far cost the producers almost R20 billion in revenue, while employees have lost almost R9bn in wages, according to an industry website that tallies the figures.
Painful restructuring and job cuts are expected when the dust has cleared from the strike, with the focus on Amplats’s operations around Rustenburg. – Reuters