Strike negotiations still continue
Since December 6 motorists in the Tubatse area have dealt with chaos on the R555 caused by protesters of Ngwaabe, Phasha, Mampuru and Tukakgomo. The end is not yet in sight as the violence continues
STEELPOORT – Since December 6 motorists in the Tubatse area have dealt with chaos on the R555 caused by protesters of Ngwaabe, Phasha, Mampuru and Tukakgomo. The end is not yet in sight as the violence continues.
In a meeting on December 8 that lasted nine hours at the Greater Tubatse Municipality, communities accused the mining companies of continuing to advertise job opportunities without sending them to the centralised offices.
They also complained about the poor communication attempts of the task team that had been enforced about four months ago to represent them at the mines. At the end of the gathering it was resolved that the strike would be cancelled and a meeting scheduled for December 14 which was attended by the DMR, mine managers and the task team.
The unexpected happened when 14 protesters were arrested afterwards and appeared in the Lydenburg Magistrate’s Court on December 11 on charges for malicious damage to property.
During the court case six buses travelled to Lydenburg and community members gathered outside the court to show their support for the suspects. “No bail was granted to them and they are still in custody. The judge withdrew the Mpumalanga case against them as some of the vehicles were set alight about 900 metres from the district border, but they still faced the Limpopo district charges,” said Mr Cisco Mohloki, one of the community representatives of Longtill.
The arranged meeting for December 14 between the task team, DMR and mine managers was postponed to yesterday because seven of the 14 protesters were still in custody and only appeared in the Schoonoord Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
According to Mohloki, the reason for the postponed meeting was that the
task-team comrade and councillor were still in police custody and could not represent the communities during the meeting.
The community also issued a strike warning for Monday night till Tuesday when the court case was to start in Schonoord Magistrate’s Court.
“On Monday the community held a meeting to hand over nine suspects to the Burgersfort police as they were on their wanted list. After we handed them over we negotiated for the release of our seven community members, but during the court case in Schonoord on Tuesday the seven were denied bail. Their case was postponed to yesterday. It seems that the police are using a delaying tactic not to release the seven community members,” added Mohloki.
The meeting between the task team, DMR and mine managers was yet again postponed until further notice. Mohloki added that it would not take place until the members were released from police custody.
