South African Miners Demand More Wages

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit on March 27, 2010. The event was a rally to demand justice in the assassination of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah by the FBI on Oct. 28, 2009., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

South African Miners Demand More Wages

Platinum workers stage strike over lack of adequate salaries and benefits

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

In the platinum sector of the mining industry in South Africa conditions are driving more workers to engage in strikes over inadequate wages, benefits and job security. Since 2012, strikes have taken place against the mine bosses resulting in the deaths of well over 50 people including both rank-and-file workers as well as union organizers.

Despite the protracted struggles of 2012 which started in the platinum areas but extended through all sectors of mining and then into agriculture and automotive, the concessions granted by the owners of these highly-profitable firms that dominate the extraction and export of these minerals, are still not enough to provide a living wage. Earlier this year, the executives at Lonmin, one of the largest platinum mining companies in the world, threatened to lay off up to 14,000 workers.

Although previous threats by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to engage in a general strike if these levels of job elimination are carried out, the owners are still seeking to enhance the degree of exploitation of their employees. The intransigence of the mining firms has increased tensions among the workers leading to splits in some areas between the NUM and the newly-formed Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).

At the Northam Platinum Ltd., the NUM began its strike on November 3. The union is demanding substantial pay increases in order to address the specific housing and family obligations of its members. (Bloomberg, November 4)

In a response to the strike a spokesman for the union said that, “There has been no invitation from the company, but we’ll be ready to see them. Ecliff Tantsi, NUM negotiator at Northam facilities , delivered this message to the international media on November 4. (Bloomberg)

On November 3, the company issued an e-mail saying that it would close its facilities in light of the strike and due to safety concerns. Yet no specific response was given to the demands of the workers.

The Northam’s Zondereinde facility, which has the world’s deepest platinum mine, was hit by a strike after the bosses’ wage offer of a 7 percent to 8 percent raise was deemed unacceptable. The NUM, which has more than 7,000 members at the firm, and is the largest union representing miners in South Africa, is demanding an average salary increase of 61 percent.

Meanwhile, at other platinum mining centers inside the country another strike over wages is also brewing this time being led by AMCU. The rival union said that the work stoppages could take place concurrently which would have a crippling impact on the industry as a whole.

According to Bloomberg News, “The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has also failed to reach an agreement over wages with Lonmin Plc (LMI), Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP) and Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AAL), the world’s three largest platinum producers. It is the biggest labor group at those companies. A strike ‘could happen jointly’ with other platinum companies, AMCU Treasurer Jimmy Gama said on Oct. 30.” (November 4)

Mine Owners Fear Industrial Action and Nationalization

Strikes inside South Africa are reflections of super-exploitation of African mine workers that has its origins in the system of settler-colonialism and apartheid. When the African National Congress (ANC) took power in 1994, culminating decades of mass struggle, armed actions and labor upheavals, the masses of youth along with agricultural, industrial and service workers wanted the implementation of the Freedom Charter which mandated the nationalization of private wealth and land. With the national elections in 2014, it will mark two decades of ANC rule without the substantial transferal of economic power to the African working majority.

Discontent is simmering in South Africa and vigorous debate is raging inside the Tripartite Alliance made up of the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African Communist Party (SACP), the South African National Civic Organizations (SANCO) and other fraternal organizations. At present the legislative assembly which is dominated by the ANC, is debating a revision of the 2002 laws governing mining operations.

Representatives of capital are complaining that some provisions within the draft law are too unfavorable to big mine owners and their executives. Nonetheless, the ANC-dominated assembly is compelled to take actions in support of miners in an effort to maintain their influence among the electorate in 2014.

One of the major spokesman for the bosses said recently of the revised Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act that “It definitely is a better piece of legislation,” Anton van Achterbergh, director of the Chamber of Mines’ legal division, told the international press in Cape Town. “However, there are some very important areas in which our concerns have not been addressed.” (Bloomberg, October 30)

Yet this legislation will still not remove the fundamental contradiction between African labor and capital, which remains in control of wealthy whites, many of whom are based outside of the continent. The government must eventually move towards nationalization under the control of the workers and communities in South Africa.

The massive infrastructural development projects needed to raise living standards and to fulfill the national aspirations of the South African people cannot be satisfied under modern day capitalist methods of production and ownership. Only the adoption of socialist planning and distribution of resources and wealth can the South African miners along with their families and communities achieve the maximum earnings from their labor.