SA strikers vow to cripple industry

where security guards stood watch over shuttered mine shaft entrances after operations were halted over safety fears.
“By the evening of Sunday all the mining industries in Rustenburg will be on its knees,” said Mametlwe Sebei, a non-Anglo American employee from the Democratic Socialist Movement political party. “Only ourselves and no one else can liberate our country. We’re starting with a mining strike here in Rustenburg, but we’re next week going to march to the Union Buildings,” the seat of government in Pretoria, Sebei told the crowd.
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) becomes the second top platinum producer to be paralysed by growing labour strife as it shut down five of its mines on Wednesday along the rich deposits of northwestern town Rustenburg’s platinum belt.
In the same region is London-listed Lonmin’s Marikana operation, where 45 people have died since a wildcat stayaway started last month.
“The memorandum has been handed over, the strike is going on,” Siphamandla Makhanya, a worker representative and Amplats winch operator said after workers’ demands were given to the company.
Amplats workers are demanding US$1,487 in an echo of the wage strike that has hit Lonmin since August 10 and escalated into a deadly police shooting on August 16 that killed 34 people. — AFP.