Minister’s initiative fails to end strike

Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi. Picture: Timothy Bernard

Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi. Picture: Timothy Bernard

Published Jun 10, 2014

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Johannesburg - The two-week-long government initiative to settle the platinum strike has failed but Mineral Resources Department spokesman Mahlodi Muofhe said yesterday that he hoped the parties now had an “appetite” to resolve the impasse.

“Since the establishment of the task team a lot of ground was covered. The minister [of mineral resources] believes we have narrowed the gaps and they now have the capacity to take the matter forward without him,” Muofhe said.

“It is [dissolved] without resolution but we want to believe they don’t have an appetite to go on for another five months.”

About 70 000 members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) downed tools in January demanding a basic monthly salary of R12 500.

At the weekend Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said he would pull out of the talks if no agreement was reached by yesterday.

Yesterday Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin said they would look at other options now that the government-brokered talks had failed. “While the producers remain committed to a negotiated settlement, they will now review further options available to them.”

So far, the industry has lost a reported R21.7 billion in earnings, while employees have forfeited wages of around R9.6bn.

A source close to Amcu’s negotiations team said the union had made significant concessions during the protracted labour dispute. These included a proposal in April to cut the R1 800 annual increase it was demanding to a R1 050 annual increase.

The source said the employers had rejected this proposal.

The union had also backed down from its initial demand of an immediate basic wage of R12 500 and agreed to R12 500 phased in over four years.

He said the proposal tabled during the inter-ministerial intervention was that the R12 500 wage demand be phased in over five years.

The Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI), a member of Business Unity SA, yesterday called on the government to do everything in its power to resolve the 20-week strike.

It was concerned about Amcu’s application in the labour court to overturn the interdict preventing it from striking in the gold sector.

“If the strike in the platinum sector is not resolved soon, the government has little option but to declare it as an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of South Africa,” the AHI said.

It said local businesses around Rustenburg were closing their doors and schools could no longer pay teachers who were appointed by governing bodies.

“A good start to resolve this impasse is for local government with the assistance of Treasury to improve the living conditions of miners and to provide decent housing,” the business chamber said.

“Such an undertaking by government, together with the latest mining companies’ wage offers of increases of up to 16 percent, provide a firm basis not only for miners to return to work, but for the raising of living standards so sorely needed.”

The SA Council of Churches ( SACC) was “gravely concerned about the protracted and crippling strike”.

It noted with regret that Ramatlhodi had withdrawn from the negotiations.

“Since the minister’s intervention has not yielded the envisioned results, we are offering our physical presence to the process in order to create a fresh, neutral space within which to try and build on the work done thus far to bring the two parties to agreement for the sake of the starving families and the economy of the country, which is in distress,” Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, the acting general secretary of the SACC, said.

The SACC called on all its member churches and their constituencies to pray “for a speedy, peaceful resolution to the strike”. - Business Report

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