Johannesburg - More than 1 000 South African workers at a Sibanye Gold mine have ended a two-day sit-in to protest against the deaths of colleagues, a union and company officials said on Wednesday.
South Africa's mines are the deepest and among the most dangerous in the world. Mining companies are required to halt operations after fatalities, leading to production losses.
Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted said the sit-in was a wildcat strike and the company would take disciplinary steps against the mine workers.
“We will be taking disciplinary action, we have lost two days of production,” he said.
The workers were protesting against Sibanye's refusal to take responsibility for deaths which occurred over the last few months, Manzini Zungu, spokesman for the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), said.
He said the workers began their protest on Tuesday at Sibanye's Driefontein mine and were demanding the deaths of the employees should be treated as a mine accident but the company was disputing the issue.
Driefontein mine is located in Carletonville, about 70 km (42 miles) west of Johannesburg. The mine is one of the deepest in the world, reaching depths about 4 kms.
“The mine workers are saying that those workers died during working hours, so that death should be classified as a mine accident which is what the mine is disputing,” Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the hardline AMCU union, told eNCA news channel.
Mines are required by law to halt production if a death or injury is caused through mining activity.
A spokesman for AMCU said workers had returned to the surface after a union leader went underground to address them.
AMCU, which represents 29 percent of the workforce in the gold sector, led a five-month wage strike last year in the platinum sector.
Livhuwani Mammburu, a spokesman for the rival National Union of Mineworkers, which represents the majority of gold mine workers, said some of its members were part of the sit-in.
Mines minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said in June that 2014 was the industry's “safest year” with deaths falling by 86 percent to 84 fatalities from 615 in 1993.
Under apartheid, scant attention was paid to the safety or well-being of an overwhelmingly black workforce.
REUTERS