NUM concerned about job losses in the platinum sector
NUM said given the huge profits announced by the mining companies over the years, retrenchments in the sector raise a lot of questions.
BURGERSFORT – Just a week after Bokoni Platinum Mine in Atok announced that it would retrench more than 2 600 miners, The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it is urgently calling on the ANC-led government to intensify its efforts to prevent job losses in the mining sector.NUM said given the huge profits announced by the mining companies over the years, retrenchments in the sector raise a lot of questions.”We will organise a march in the coming weeks against planned retrenchments, especially in the platinum-mining sector,” said the union’s deputy general secretary, William Mabapa. The union reckoned that some of the mining companies have defaulted and no longer follow guidelines of stakeholder declarations in the sector, therefore it is calling for a jobs summit and improved relationships between itself and the mining companies.Mabapa said the current retrenchments could also be politically motivated by mining companies as the ANC heads towards its December elective conference.
“The relationship with the minister is the worst, but that does not mean that we don’t have to keep on engaging and one of the challenges is that he is never available.” NUM is deeply disturbed by the current consideration by the minister of mineral resources, Mosebenzi Zwane to put in place a moratorium until the finalisation of the current court challenges of the gazetted Mining Charter by the Chamber of Mines.
The union said it believes the moratorium will negatively impact its members through further job losses since there is no Section 11 approvals taking place on the change of ownership or prospecting rights.
The union indicated it will submit to the department to desist from implementing the envisaged moratorium with immediate effect.
