Open season on Sibanye after it mentions jobs

Published Apr 4, 2013

Share

Criticism aimed at Sibanye Gold, which may cut 3 000 jobs at its Beatrix West section, intensified yesterday when Gwede Mantashe, the secretary-general of the ANC, attacked the company for penalising workers.

In an interview with radio station SAfm, Mantashe said: “You don’t penalise victims for a fire. Safety is the responsibility of management.”

Sibanye Gold, the country’s second-biggest producer of gold, was formed when Gold Fields unbundled its South African assets in November.

The criticism from Mantashe follows the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) blaming the mining company for using the fire as an excuse for mass retrenchments that were planned last year.

Lesiba Seshoka, the spokesman of the NUM, accused Sibanye of sabotaging the government by creating job losses ahead of next year’s national election.

The assertions by Mantashe and the NUM were to be expected.

When Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s biggest platinum producer, announced restructuring plans that are expected to lead to the shedding of 14 000 jobs, it too was criticised by the government for “not consulting”.

Susan Shabangu, the Minister of Mineral Resources, blasted Amplats and threatened to review its licence.

The fact that mining companies are under financial strain amid increasing production costs and falling economic growth in the euro zone cannot be ignored.

After the fire, Beatrix, which employed 2 800 permanent employees and 300 contractors, said it would lose 61kg of gold a month, or about R28 million of revenue.

Damen Shipyards

It seems the Zuma name is everywhere. It’s even associated with the R5 million agreement between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Damen Shipyards Cape Town.

Damen has been given the job of sprucing up and making seaworthy the six marine patrol and research ships that fall under the department. Yesterday, top officials from the department and Damen’s management signed the agreement.

Present were Ceba Mtoba, the chief director of monitoring, control and surveillance; Greta Apelgren-Narkedien, the deputy director-general in the department; and Sefale Montsi-Zuma and Gary Atkins, both from Damen.

While President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, has been mentioned in passing during the Central African Republic crisis – not to mention over Aurora Empowerment Systems, which messed up the Orkney and Grootvlei gold mines – and Duduzane Zuma, one of the president’s sons, has fingers in the Guptas’ business pie, Sefale Montsi-Zuma is married to Joel Zuma, a musician based in KwaZulu-Natal.

Montsi-Zuma is the daughter of Sam Montsi, who owns 30 percent of Damen. However, it is understood that Joel Zuma is not of the presidential bloodline – according to City Press – “although there may be long-distance links”.

Shaheen Moolla, a fisheries analyst who keeps a sharp eye on the fishing industry and the state of South Africa’s marine resources, said there was no whiff of scandal associated with Damen, which was a reputable ship building and repair company.

However, Moolla warned that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries “is a serious brand-destroyer”.

It had the capacity to drag the reputations of companies through the mud. He was concerned that the R5m agreement with Damen would not pass the Public Finance Management Act test.

The department argued that it had not followed normal public tender procures because the repair to the ships was “an emergency”. Moolla said he believed poor planning was not an emergency.

page 18

Edited by Peter DeIonno. With contributions from Dineo Faku and Donwald Pressly.

Related Topics: