JOHANNESBURG –The president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), Joseph Mathunjwa, will on Monday address a mass meeting with union members who have entered the ninth week of a wage strike at Sibanye-Stillwater's gold operations in South Africa.
About 15,000 Amcu members at Sibanye downed tools last November demanding a R1,000 annual wage increase for the next three years, and have clashed with colleagues from rival National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) which, alongside other unions, signed a deal with Sibanye and whose members are at work.
Mathunjwa has accused Sibanye of of exploitation and cutting corners on safety, saying that the miner was being disingenuous in pleading poverty when workers demanded higher wages but quick to inform investors that it was not feeling the financial pinch of the strike.
This was after Sibanye last week said 2018 gold production at its South African operations was expected to be just marginallly below guidance due in part to the successful implementation of measures to mitigate the impact and limit losses of the strike.
Last week, Mathunjwa held a mass meeting with Amcu members at Kloof mine and reiterated that the strike would continue until workers' demands were met, saying that they would escalate the stand-off to a secondary strike in the platinum sector if necessary.
Four Amcu members arrested during the strike will on Thursday hear if the Oberholzer Court in Carletonville will grant them bail. They have been charged with theft of motor vehicles, public violence and robbery with aggravated circumstances.