[miningmx.com] — THE ANC in parliament has tol trade unions to be wary of the R150m offer by China African Precious Metals (CAPM) for the bankrupt Pamodzi Gold’s Orkney mine.
The proposed deal has reached an advanced stage.
The CAPM transaction, similar to the one with Orkney and Grootvlei’s previous manager, Aurora Empowerment Systems, has a strong political flavour.
It’s a Chinese-South African consortium consisting of BEK Resources, a local consortium under the leadership of Elias Khumalo, and the SSC Mandarin Group.
Khumalo is a former trade union leader and personal adviser to President Zuma.
Barend Petersen, one of the provisional liquidators of Orkney and Grootvlei and executive chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines, told the mineral resources portfolio committee that if the Reserve Bank approves CAPM’s first payment next month, workers could get a portion of their unpaid salaries – subject to the negotiations between CAPM and the trade unions.
However, Joe Montisetse, regional secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in North-West, told journalists after the session the problem is that CAPM does not want to comply with collective bargaining agreements.
Though ANC foreign policy strongly favours China, mineral resources portfolio committee chairman Fred Gona warned on Friday about China’s history of labour legislation and human rights violations. “Warning lights are flashing,’ he said.
KaapVaal Trust’s Gert de Wet was appointed on Thursday to handle Aurora’s provisional liquidation.
Aurora has been accused of asset stripping, which has reduced the value of its assets by an estimated R1.7bn.
“Aurora stole more that R137m (from workers) by means of, for example, pension deductions, which have now disappeared. But the department of labour can’t lay criminal charges.”
Montisetse said unions were paralysed because of Aurora’s political ties.
Gideon du Plessis, deputy general secretary of trade union Solidarity, whose members are also owed millions of rands, wants De Wet to approach the court immediately so that inquiries can be conducted into Aurora’s management and the activities of its directors.
In cases where serious mismanagement is suspected, directors can be held responsible in their individual capacity.
“They never planned to do any mining. This is now seen by overseas investors as “institutional corruption’,” he said.
Sam Morotoba, a deputy director-general at the department of labour, said Aurora has been playing cat and mouse with the department since July, which has been struggling to hand over a court order for the payment of R3.95m to Orkney workers in arrears wages.
The department is meeting Aurora’s liquidators today to include this sum in the liquidation agreement.
– Sake24
