Review minimum wages: Vavi

The Congress of SA Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has called for a review of all minimum wage agreements.

He said on Saturday that workers should be paid according to the jobs they are doing.

"Rock drill operators must be paid well, [because] their job is demanding -- they must be rewarded."

Vavi was addressing a Cosatu rally at Olympia Park Stadium in Rustenburg.

He said, in the future, Cosatu would not negotiate based on percentages.

"We want money, and not percentages," he said.

Vavi said the rally was meant to unite workers.

"We want you to be united. Forgive those who attacked us this morning, they will kill us today and regret the following day. "

Vavi said a group of digruntled mine workers who had attempted to block the rally was being misled by people with political ambitions.

He said the group would one day see that they had been led into a hole.

Earlier SA Communist Party secretary-general Blade Nzimande thanked Cosatu members at the rally for their discipline when the group charged at members.

"What I have seen is an extreme act of provocation, the police did well to disperse them," he said.

"I am interested to see how the media will report this."

Nzimande was speaking at a relatively empty stadium after a large number of Cosatu members ran away when police were dispersing striking workers who opposed the rally.

The group wore black t-shirts and said they would not return to work until their salary demands were met.