[miningmx.com] – SUSAN Shabangu, South Africa’s mines minister, said
that an 18% increase in miner wages last year granted by Impala Platinum (Implats)
to a section of its workers was the root cause of the strike contagion currently
sweeping the country’s mining sector.
“Are they [Implats] not responsible for what we are seeing today?,’ Shabangu was
quoted to have said in an article by BDlive, an online publication.
“They’ve proved a point that, even if you have wage agreements, you can still
undermine them,’ she said. “You can’t agree on a process and then immediately move
out of that process. That is why we have this challenge now.
“We have to look at the conduct of some mining companies like Implats, who are
responsible for being unilateral and undermining some of their processes.’
This view was supported by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) who, in a press conference on
October 2, said that Implats had made “grave error’ in granting the wage increase.
“It is the mine employers in general, and Impala bosses in particular, who must take
full responsibility for all the strikes that are spreading in the mining industry,’ NUM
and Cosatu said.
