Twickenham miners take their grievances to the CCMA
THE tumultuous unrest that recently exploded at Twickenham Platinum Mine near Burgersfort in the Sekhukhune area forced the police to use rubber bullets to disperse protesting mineworkers.
Moyahabo Mabeba
LIMPOPO – THE tumultuous unrest that recently exploded at Twickenham Platinum Mine near Burgersfort in the Sekhukhune area forced the police to use rubber bullets to disperse protesting mineworkers.
The turmoil was triggered by the termination of contracts of about 180 workers by their company, which had been contracted to the mine.
Workers affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) were demonstrating at the mine’s entrances when confrontation between them and the police got out of hand.
The mineworkers’ access cards were blocked, barring them from entering the mine premises.
The situation over the weekend was described by NUM spokesperson, Steve Pilusa, as ‘tense’. “Our members have been singing revolutionary songs to register their frustrations since Friday and Saturday,” he said.
The employees were informed last year of the closure of the Twickenham shaft for rehabilitation. Since the shaft was shut down, the employees were moved to work at another shaft. Capital Development Services (CDS) served the union with notice to terminate the contracts of 165 workers. CDS is a subsidiary of the Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).
The workers demanded that all affected employees be reinstated. This year they were given letters informing them about retrenchments and about the packages that the employer was giving them.
Pilusa said the affected miners worked for several years without pension and they needed to be given more money as retrenchment packages.
“They gave our members an offer of two weeks of basic conditions each year of service, which the majority of our members rejected based on the reasons that these poor members don’t have a provident fund. They don’t have a pension fund and have been on fixed term ever since they were employed.
“As NUM, we also view that offer as less favourable because you need something which will sustain you for five years even after you are retrenched.”
Spokesperson for Anglo American, Mpumi Sithole, said there were talks between the workers and the SAN Company, a contractor of Anglo American that hired the workers. Sithole also said Anglo American was facilitating the talks.
“We are concerned as a mine that there is a group of contractors that are contracted by SAN and have embarked on a strike at Twickenham as a result of their contract with SAN coming to an end. As mine management, we have facilitated a meeting between SAN and employees to try and resolve the issue and we hope that SAN and its employees will reach a calm and peaceful resolution soon” said Sithole.
However, the impasse between the employers and the livid miners has forced the disgruntled workers to take their grievances to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
The matter continues.
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