SA miners refuse to end strikes

Mineworkers (NUM), which should have seen miners return underground yesterday morning.
“Nobody came to work,” said Gold Fields vice-president Willie Jacobsz.
Gold Fields is the world’s number four producer of the precious metal.
The firm’s KDC West mine, which employs 15 000 people near Johannesburg, has been crippled since September 9, slowing production by 1 400 ounces of gold a day — worth around US$2,5 million at current market prices.
“There was an agreement on Friday that they would commit to return to work but as we said over the weekend we could only tell this morning once they arrived, now they did not turn up for work this morning,” said Jacobsz.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) co-ordinator for Gold Fields Kenneth Buda confirmed the stayaway.
Staff rejected the agreement over demands for a base salary of R12 500 (US$1 520) — which has become a rallying call on strike-hit mines — and the equalisation of salaries and benefits, he said.
“They said they can’t go back to work until those two issues are addressed,” said Buda.
The unrest has spiralled out of a deadly six-week stand-off at Lonmin’s platinum mine near Rustenburg, which killed 46 people, to platinum and gold producers.
The world’s number three gold firm, AngloGold Ashanti, yesterday said its workers were still on strike at its Kopanang mine around 180 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg.
The mine employs around 5 000 workers and produced 4 percent of AngloGold’s total output for the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, South Africa truck drivers and other transport workers launched a strike for higher wages yesterday, a union spokesman said, amid concerns that the standstill could cause fuel shortages.
Masoga said truckers were seeking a 12 percent increase for 2013 and 2014, but would not settle for less than 9.
He would not confirm local media reports that employers had offered 9 percent.
Workers would decide on the new wage offer on Tuesday (yesterday), said Masoga.
Meanwhile the country’s petroleum industry association made emergency fuel supply plans “to ensure the areas that are affected can still be managed to supply,” spokesman Avhapfani Tshifularo told radio’s Eyewitness News.
South Africa has been hit by a wave of strikes in recent weeks, including a miners’ strike that left 46 dead amid violent confrontations with police. — AFP.