(MnG SA) Labour Amplats workers end underground protest
15 Jun 2013 10:05
Reuters, Sapa
Operations at Anglo American Platinum's Thembelani mine are back to normal after a "group of employees" prevented workers from going above ground.
"The situation at the mine is normal, people came above ground yesterday evening," Amplats spokesperson Mpumi Sithole said.
The industrial action followed the dismissal of four union shop stewards for "inappropriate behaviour".
According to the company about 2400 mineworkers were being prevented from exiting the shaft on Friday.
"We confirm that this is as a result of the suspension of four shop stewards for inappropriate behaviour which is against our behavioural procedure," Sithole said at the time.
Earlier, French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the workers were staging a sit-in strike over the suspension of four union leaders.
"They don't want to come out from underground because they want their leadership's suspension lifted," Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) official George Tyobeka was quoted as saying.
The four Amcu leaders suspended were reportedly accused of submitting fraudulent membership applications in an attempt to inflate union membership numbers.
Amcu and its rival union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), have been struggling for dominance at the mines, which has resulted in violent strikes and assassinations.
Last year, the police shot dead 34 miners at Lonmin's neighbouring mine in Marikana.
Eight NUM members were recently suspended at Lonmin for alleged union membership fraud.
The Amplats tension happened as Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe was meeting union and mining companies on Friday to find a solution to the instability which has troubled the sector in the past months. – Reuters, Sapa
Labels: AMPLATS, MINING, SOUTH AFRICA, STRIKE
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(NEWZIMBABWE, REUTERS) Amplats cuts 6,000 jobs in South Africa
11/05/2013 00:00:00
by Reuters
COMMENT - In Zimbabwe, the land reform movement had a huge shot in the arm from all the people who lost their jobs because of the IMF/World Bank's structural adjustment program (ESAP). If many people in South Africa lose their jobs, they may have no alternative except to get land. - MrK
ANGLO American Platinum said on Friday it would cut 6,000 South African mining jobs, fewer than half the 14,000 initially proposed, as it tries to restore profits without provoking a backlash from the government and restive unions.
The world's top platinum producer, a unit of Anglo American, added it would also keep open one of four shafts slated for closure near the platinum belt city of Rustenburg.
Amplats aims to slash platinum production by 10 percent or 250,000 ounces this year, equal to 4.5 percent of global output. Another 100,000 ounces will go in the medium term.
Under an original plan announced in January, it aimed to cut output by 400,000 ounces. The reduced job losses are likely to soften the blow for the African National Congress (ANC) government, which faces an election next year, but it remains to be seen if it appeases the anger of powerful local unions.
"Everyone is surprised. We were not expecting any retrenchment at all. We can't allow this," Sphamandla Makhanya, a worker committee member at Amplats in Rustenburg told Reuters.
"But before we do anything, we are going to have a mass meeting with the workers to decide what to do next."
For Amplats, reining in costs and cutting output to underpin the price of platinum, used for emissions-capping catalytic converters in vehicles, is crucial to getting back to profit.
The company said it would now aim to produce 2.2 to 2.4 million ounces a year, up from the 2.1 to 2.3 million ounces targeted in the original plan. The revisions should deliver 3.8 billion rand ($423 million) in savings by 2015.
"This is a significant step back to where we were and it doesn't feel like it addresses the radical problem of oversupply of material, weak or deteriorating demand environment," said analyst Paul Gait of Sanford Bernstein in London.
"The positive is this is an undoubted improvement from the kind of announcement we used to have from Anglo Platinum, which was a blithe disregard for market fundamentals, the cost base of their production - and a single minded focus on producing."
Amplats' shares extended losses on the day to be almost 3 percent lower in mid-afternoon trade in Johannesburg.
Sources told Reuters last week the plan would be watered down after talks with the government.
Chief Executive Chris Griffith said the company would discuss it with unions over the next two to three months.
He signaled the jobs target could be reached over time, saying on a call with analysts the company would look at reducing numbers by as much as 3,000 to 4,000 a year through attrition and would consider proposing early retirement for 1,500 employees over the age of 55.
Some older workers around Rustenburg on Friday said they were ready to hang up their tools.
Dressed in white overalls, Karel Mokgoatsi, a rock driller at Khomanani, one of the affected mines, said: "For others this will be bad news but for me it is good news. I am 60 years old and I am ready to go and have some rest."
Vow to fight
Hours before the announcement, activists from the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) in Rustenburg said they would not tolerate any job losses.
"Where will 6,000 people in this economy go? They will engage in criminality," said Simon Hlongwane, an AMCU branch secretary at Amplats. "We as AMCU stand ready to fight."
Social tensions are running high after violence rooted in a labor turf war between AMCU and the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) killed more than 50 people last year and provoked illegal strikes that hit production.
The unrest was a major reason why Amplats suffered its first loss last year. But with unemployment at more than 25 percent, the government has taken a strong line with Amplats.
The average South African mineworker has eight dependants, so the social and political consequences even of reduced lay-offs will be far reaching.
AMCU miners briefly closed several mines when the initial Amplats plan was unveiled in January. Its leaders said on Thursday they would not back such wildcat strike action.
AMCU emerged as the dominant union in the platinum shafts after it poached tens of thousands of disgruntled members from NUM, a political ally of the ruling African National Congress.
The union power struggle explains why the ANC and the government have dug in on the proposed Amplats cuts, a striking contrast to the past when the gold industry was allowed to cut tens of thousands of jobs to remain viable.
General elections are due next year, and for the ANC, the union war means it has lost tens of thousands of potential voters and their many dependants as the NUM is a vehicle for campaigning and getting out the working class vote.
Labels: AMPLATS, ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, JOBS, PLATINUM
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Unkie Mine payment blow for Brainworks
07/03/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
BRAINWORKS Capital has suffered a new payment blow after Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) refused to pay the Harare firm some US$3 million in agency fees for work related to the platinum producer’s Unki Mine indigenisation plan.
Amplats has since agreed to transfer to locals 51 percent shareholding in its Shurugwi-based Unki Mine in line with the country’s indigenisation legislation but the world’s biggest platinum producer refused to pay costs incurred by the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (Nieeb) over the deal.
Brainworks acted as advisors on the $284 million transaction but in letters seen by the Daily News the Nieeb forwarded the US$3 million invoice for the services to Unki in yet another farcical turn for the country’s indigenisation programme.
“Further my letter of 20th December 2012 and our subsequent telephone conversations regarding the above subject, I now write to formally submit to your company the final tax invoice for US$3,275,200 raised by our financial advisors, Brainworks Capital Management Company (Private) Limited, representing advisory fees for the provision of advisory services to the government of Zimbabwe and the Nieeb,” Nieeb chief executive Wellington Zengeza wrote in his letter to Unki.
“As explained in our previous telephone discussion, the submission of the invoice to your company for payment is in line with our principals' directive that advisory charges incurred by Nieeb and the government in the execution of indigenisation transactions will be paid by the companies that are indigenizing in pursuance of the lndigenisation and Economic Empowerment legislation.
However Unki refused to pay the fee, reminding the Nieeb that the advisors were engaged by and provided their services on behalf of the Board and the Zimbabwe government.
“This matter has been discussed internally and I regret to advise that these costs cannot be for Unki's account. Brainworks Capital was not contracted by Unki as its advisors. Neither was the scope of works to be carried out nor fees to be charged agreed upfront,” Unki’s chief financial officer Collin Chibafa said in response.
The revelations come after Zimplats, the country’s leading platinum miner, also refused to pay about US$17 million in agency fees to Brainworks for its indigenisation compliance plan.
Zimplats, majority-owned by South Africa-based Impala Platinum Mines, also said Brainworks was engaged by and provided its services on to Nieed which should therefore pay the firm’s fees.
Brainworks also acted as advisors in the compliance agreements for Canada-based Caledonia Mining and South Africa’s Pretoria Portland Cement.
Labels: AMPLATS, BRAINWORKS CAPITAL, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), PLATINUM, UNKIE MINE
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