Matters of fact

Last week in "RBPlat off to a rousing debut" we published a comment that Anglo Platinum's decision to veto a prelisting takeover offer for Royal Bafokeng Platinum by Impala Platinum had left "a bad taste in the mouth.

The Impala deal would've been a superb outcome for RBPlat". The comment was made by an analyst but we incorrectly attributed it to RBH CEO Niall Carroll. We regret the error, which was introduced during editing.

• Last week in "Num wants gold mines held accountable for job losses", we reported that Gold Fields was planning to cut 6000 jobs next year and quoted Num spokesman Lesiba Seshoka as saying the union saw the retrenchment process as a challenge to go to war.

In fact, Gold Fields has already reduced staff numbers by about 3000 through natural attrition, voluntary severance packages and replacing non-essential contracting services with in-house services. It aims to bring the number down by a further 3000 by the end of next year through the same programmes. The only retrenchments have been 115 managers as a result of merging the Kloof and Driefontein mines and the SA head office.

We also quoted Seshoka as saying Gold Fields had tried to talk the government and workers into increasing shifts at South Deep mine. Gold Fields has denied doing any such thing. We regret the errors.