The workers' strike at Goldfields' South Deep operation has become violent, Goldfields said on Thursday.
“Gold Fields Limited notes with concern incidents of intimidation and violence linked to the ongoing strike action by the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) at its South Deep gold mine,” said spokesman Sven Lunsche.
He said a small group of Num members had damaged property at the mine is Westonaria, South of Johannesburg, and intimidated non-striking staff at work and at their homes.
“Several employees have been assaulted and injured... cases of assault have been opened with the police by Goldfields on behalf of the non-striking employees.”
Lunsche said the incidents of violence began on Tuesday and on Wednesday Num committed to putting a stop to it.
Num spokesman Lesiba Seshoka denied any incidents of intimidation and violence saying: “There have been no such incidents.. these incidents are a creation of Goldfields management”.
“How can we condemn this if there have been no such incidents?
“This is propaganda created by the company which is trying to put a dent in our image.”
Commenting on Goldfields opening of cases with the police Seshoka said “We take this as a declaration of war... we will ensure that all operations are grounded”.
Police spokeswoman Constable Linkie Lefakane confirmed the incidents of violence saying: “There was definitely intimidation... Four cases of malicious damage to property and two cases of assault were opened.”
“The injuries to the individuals were minor.”
She said police were at the mine monitoring the situation which was now calm.
About 3000 workers began striking on November 12 focusing on transformation demands.
Seshoka, said that the union wanted to be involved in “all levels of employment including top management”.
“The company's executive management is a lily-white island in a sea of black people,” he said.
Lunsche said talks with the union since Friday had been positive but had since been “marred” by the incidents of intimidation and violence.
He said the company did not accede to the union's demand to be involved in procurement and the appointment of senior managers, as this was the function of management.
He did not want to discuss the impact of the strike on production levels at the mine.
“We are, at this stage, not willing to release production numbers. We have said that the strike clearly had an impact on production and, to a lesser extent, on development at South Deep.
“Attendance of total employees and contractors is around a third of our total staff complement of around 6,000. It is lower though at our production areas.”
However, he said the strike “clearly had an impact on production and, to a lesser extent, on development”.
Seshoka said workers would continue to strike until the end of year and that there was a possibility that the strike could spill over to all Goldfields operations. - Sapa