The ongoing action by members of the community to get mines in the area to employ more local people got out of
hand last week when protesters took over Carletonville’s central business district.
From early last Wednesday morning, the leadership of the MPPF (Merafong Progressive Partnership Forum), an
organisation that wants to take on various problems in the community, met with representatives of Anglo Gold
Ashanti (AGA). The meeting, which took place at the main municipal building in Halite Street in Carletonville,
was to discuss possibilities of this mining house employing more local people.
At about 10:30, while the talks were underway, a group of about 100 supporters started protesting in the
park in front of the Carletonville library.
Some just gathered peacefully while another group started toyi-toying.
Others started burning tyres and even set a flag alight. The group later moved to the section of Halite Street in front of the municipal buildings. Here, they continued to burn tyres and just before 13:00, they even removed used tyres from a business alongside Annan Road to burn. Municipal traffic officers and members of the police closed off the various entrances to the road where the group were demonstrating. Some members of the group also waved political posters.
The group only dispersed at around 14:00, when members of the police’s public order policing unit (POPS) arrived at the scene and dispersed the protesters with rubber bullets and stun grenades.
‘We had not planned for this to get out of hand. We left our supporters in the park at the library when we went to
talk to the mine management. We told them to stay there,’ the chairman of the MPPF, Mr Abie Malefo, later told the
Herald.
According to Malefo, the meeting with AGA went well and, although the mine has not yet agreed to employ a
specific number of community members, he feels they (the talks) ‘are moving in the right direction’. The outcome
was reported to the supporters after the meeting and he acknowledged that members of the public might want
more concrete answers. Further feedback sessions will be held in the park in front of the library every Wednesday
morning from now on.
According to Malefo, the MPPF is sticking to its demand that each of the three mining houses Z AGA, Sibanye
Gold and Harmony Gold, must start by employing 3 000 local residents each.
These numbers are negotiable, however, and, in the case of Sibanye Gold, land belonging to the mining house
could also be included in the negotiations.
Malefo added that the MPPF wants the mines to give preference to local residents between the ages of 18 and 48
who are the breadwinners of their families.
Anyone who has grown up in Merafong, has family ties here or has stayed in the area and has roots in the local
community are considered to be locals.
According to the spokesperson of the police in Carletonville, WO Peter Masoea, POPS has opened a case of
public violence against the protesters but no one had yet been arrested yet.
During the same morning, a group of residents from Khutsong Ext. 5 also blocked the road running past this area
in protest against having to continually put up with no water in their taps.
