Johannesburg - Just three days after his appointment to the cabinet, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi has hit the ground running.
He announced yesterday the setting up of an interministerial task team to try to resolve the platinum mining strike, which is threatening to tip the country into recession.
Ramatlhodi’s intervention marks the most public effort by the government since the start of the strike on January 23. It also appears to be a last-ditch attempt to salvage mediation talks after it emerged yesterday that the process facilitated by the Labour Court had stalled.
The team, with representatives from the departments of Mineral Resources, Labour and the National Treasury are scheduled to meet with representatives of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin, as well as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), today.
But how Ramatlhodi would succeed where his predecesor Susan Shabangu failed was unclear as Amcu and the employers remain poles apart.
The union that called the strike has dug in its heels and has prepared for a long fight, leaving its members to scrape by on handouts after four months without pay.
“This intervention will support the mediation process that is being facilitated by the Labour Court,” a joint statement by the employers said.
To date, the producers have forfeited production revenue of almost R20 billion. Employees have lost earnings of almost R9bn.
Insiders said the mediation talks had collapsed with the release of gross domestic product (GDP) figures on Tuesday, which showed the economy contracted by 0.6 percent in the first quarter. Analysts predict a recession if mining and manufacturing output do not pick up by the end of this month.
Another contraction in the second quarter would plunge the country into a new recession after the one ended in 2009.
Government bonds weakened alongside the rand yesterday, pushing the yield on the heavily-traded 2026 bond up 6.5 basis points to 8.255 percent. The shorter-dated R157 issue added 3 basis points to 6.635 percent.
Franz Stehring, the divisional manager of mineral resources at trade union Uasa, said the main hindrance in progress at the Labour Court was that Amcu had a rigid mandate from its workers and would take time to receive feedback .
Johan Theron, an executive director at Implats, said that the court process was under way and had made progress.
The company had not received formal comment from the ministry on whether it would intervene. “The process has not ended and I cannot engage with the media until it has been concluded.”
However, he revealed that the talks had hit difficult areas.
Theron said the negotiation process needed to factor in economic realities and that the company could only offer the best possible wage settlement. “We tried to resolve it by means of making a wage offer but we cannot afford the R12 500 basic salary in four years,” he said.
He also said that the delicate and extraordinary strike situation should have been dealt with months ago, highlighting that most of the stakeholders involved had failed to understand that they were dealing with a sensitive situation where extraordinary measures needed to be taken.
Stehring said the minister had availed himself to assist within the reaches of his power. If talks continued to break down at the Labour Court, then Ramatlhodi would personally intervene to resolve the matter, which Shabangu had failed to do.
Amplats shares dropped 1.16 percent to close at R468 yesterday; Lonmin shares rose 0.74 percent to close at R45.99; Implats shares fell 0.35 percent to close at R114.50. – Additional reporting by Sapa