'We'll give them a new Marikana'
Nearly 13000 striking miners - facing eviction from their hostels - have promised a wave of unprecedented violence at Goldfields' KDC West mine in Carletonville. The miners have been on strike for three weeks.
The mine has been granted a court order to dismiss the miners, and is seeking a court order to evict them.
About 5500 angry KDC miners armed themselves with spears, knobkerries and axes, and had a tense stand-off with the mine's in-house security, who had arrested eight of the striking miners' leaders yesterday.
As word of the arrests spread, miners called for the removal of mine management.
With security personnel threatening to open fire on them, workers took to Mphahlele hill outside the mine, establishing their own "Marikana".
With anger rising, miners turned on one of their own, accusing him of spying for Gold Fields. After beating the man, several miners were ready to hack him to death but various leaders formed a protective barricade around him.
A representative for the workers, Professor Gcuma, said: "This will not end because management says it must. It will end when we get what we want - a fair living wage."
Striker Simphiwe Myaleni said: "We do not want to fight, but we are left with no choice. We gathered peacefully at the mine and were threatened. They have chased us from the hostels, but we will not run any more. We are not afraid. If they come for us, we are ready. We have our hill and if they want another Marikana we will give it to them," he said.
Myaleni said they were not interested in the Marikana commission of inquiry.
"It cannot feed us. It cannot bring back those who died. It will not punish those who caused all of this or give us good jobs to feed our families."
Gold Fields spokesman Sven Lunsche said the arrests were made on mine property.
"Since the beginning of the strike we have been gathering evidence against these men. We handed the evidence, including video footage, to a public prosecutor, who agreed to the arrests."
Lunsche said miners had until midday to vacate the hostels.
"As with all other orders they ignored this order. We are in the process of getting an eviction order because the hostels are being used to plan and carry out violence."
Police spokesman Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said eight people had been arrested yesterday.
"They will appear in court on charges of public violence, intimidation and inciting violence. We have deployed extra manpower to the area and are rolling out security plans to deal with such incidents," he said.
Retired judge Ian Farlam, heading the commission of inquiry into the Marikana massacre, yesterday visited the mine's hostels near the Wonderkop stadium and the Nkaneng informal settlement, where a police raid took place.
Join the discussion & Debate
'We'll give them a new Marikana'
For Commenters Consideration | Please stick to the subject matterCOMMENTS [20]
SuiGeneris
Posted 259 days agoAND
'''''About 5500 angry KDC miners armed themselves with spears, knobkerries and axes''''
Note the arrogance and an open invitation for the police to retaliate !
Everything in life revolves around ATTITUDE !
Is this the correct way to negotiate a settlement ?
To arm themselves and invite retaliation ?
And when the police fire at them because they've killed some of those who are just too happy to have a job and doesn't want to join the strike, then they cry foul.
rahima
Posted 259 days agopaulth82
Posted 259 days agocj715
our jobs are being threatened by these unprotected strikes....
SuiGeneris
paulth82
RSA.MommaCyndi
Posted 259 days ago.... because the first one worked out so well?
Some days it is very difficult to find a damn to give. I empathise with their desire for better salaries (we'd all like the belt to loosen slightly) but this is just getting ridiculous now
paulth82
Posted 259 days agoLooking at it from a humanitarian point of view "these people" have been getting meager salaries for many years living in squalid conditions because the mining companies were busy maximising their margins. If these companies had done the responsible thing all along they would not be sitting with this huge problem now that they have to fix at such a short space of time. They would have increased the wages gradually over the years they would not be under the gun now to sort things out. They should have provided gradually for costs of improvements in the living conditions of the miners. And by the way the sooner they get used to paying people what they deserve for their hard work the better. The "good old days are gone" no more cheap labour that horse has bolted. You can't even find cheap labour in China and India anymore because their standards of living are improving rightfully so they deserve it. This is where the wrongs of the past are being corrected.
And cj715 you are not the only whose job is being threatened by this whole situation "these people's" livelihoods are also under threat.
RSA.MommaCyndi
If Lonmin has an operating profit or US$160 million and they have 28 thousand employees, how much of an increase should they be giving their employees and what amount should they be giving their shareholders?
paulth82
ccfourie01
As for "cheap labour", you're right. However, SA has expensive labour, expecially when you take productivity into account.
Do yourself a favour and read Ford’s Asia Pacific and Africa president Joe Hinrichs latest comments. He makes it blatantly clear that we need to operate in a globally competitive context and this sort of behaviour will not help generate investment. It will increase unemployment and this will ultimately incfrease the amount of poor and unemployed.
RSA.MommaCyndi
No. It is a genuine question. Show me the math as to what you think the average miner should get as an increase and what the shareholders should get
Lonmin is a listed company - I used their 2011 on line audited accounts
PaulThabane
PaulThabane
RSA.MommaCyndi
Sorry, I was using a figure from memory and could very well have made an error, The fact remains though that an average of R8,000 per employee would have meant that Lonmin would come up over a billion rand short on the salary bill for the year - that is assuming that our exchange rate and the world economy remain similar to what they are.
We have the option to go the 'modern' route. The government and the labour unions have been encouraging the mining industries not to go for mechanisation but the workers seem to be pushing in that direction. If we do go the mechanised route, the miners will get far better salaries but they will need tertiary education and there will be far, far fewer of them,
JerryYatriq
Posted 259 days agoAssuming "Socialist Economics" and divide the complete amount between 28 k strikers (workers?) that mounts to approx 4000 ZAR each, once off!
Next month there is no profit left and no guarantee of even making the current wages.
Will there be money left for operating costs, safety, or further devlopement to ensure
future operations?
As soon as you achieved that, there is no payment for shareholders and what about the taxman's share?
Would you invest even one rand under those conditions?
As a senior citizen who previously ran larger and then smaller businesses, often with the sole reward of simply providing employment to the uncooperative ungrateful I have long ago been convinced by Socialist Trade Unionist propaganda that always assumes that the employer is an exploiter.
I have given up "exploiting" altogether and now refuse to "exploit" and only employ myself.
Go create your own employment and figure out when you won the "Class Struggle" and defeated all employers, which ones of your unproductive and unemployed comrades you could tax or plunder to provide you with a living.
JeffMarett
PaulThabane
RSA.MommaCyndi
I'm afraid that the concept of 'swings and roundabouts' along with the concept of 'risk' isn't understood too well in SA. There seems to be this impression that the CEO plays golf all day with not a care in the world and that turnover is equal to profit.
rahima
You said it exactly right. Why can the sheeple not see it?