[miningmx.com] – JULIUS Malema was frog-marched from Marikana in
the North West province yesterday, where he hoped to address a stadium of striking
Lonmin workers amid hopes that a wage settlement could be reached.
According to an AFP report, Lonmin workers were prepared to lower their demands for
a R12,500 per month basic salary in what appears to be encouraging flickers that a
settlement could be reached as early as today (September 18).
“We have been mandated to negotiate on a specific figure. The workers are not
married to the R12,500 monthly salary,’ Bishop Jo Seoka, President of the South
African Council of Churches, was quoted by AFP to have said.
“We hope the news will be better than this tomorrow [Tuesday],’ he said, adding that
should an agreement be reached, the miners would return to work on Tuesday.
The miners were reportedly prepared to accept a monthly salary of R11,000,
according to news channel eNCA. The strikers claim they currently earn about R4 000
per month.
Earlier Seoka had pleaded with the striking miners to lower their monthly salary
demand. “You must give us a mandate to go a little bit down,’ he told them, while
insisting that it should not be to the level that would hurt them.
This is a far cry from the sabre-rattling typified by Malema last week when he
encouraged miners to hold out for their full wage demands and even said that the
mining industry should embark on a national strike.
Commenting on his eviction, Malema told BDLive that he did not intend to incite
violence but to listen to worker demands.
“I came here 48 hours after people were killed. I was invited here after locals had
contacted the Secretary General (of the youth league). I heard that they had genuine
demands and I went to listen to them,’ he told the website.
“They (the government) must come sit down and talk. They are being misled by the
ruling elite and the BEE partners of the mines who are saying they don’t have to
engage us,’ he said.
