Give workers equity‚ Amcu tells mines threatening retrenchments

Mineworkers should be granted shares in mines threatening retrenchments‚ Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president Joseph Mathunjwa has said.

This would minimise job losses‚ he said when addressing reporters at a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday.

“As Amcu we're persuading these mines. We're trying to engage the companies that the workers should have equity in the mines for [them] to have a say.”

Also‚ those mines deemed not profitable should be given to mineworkers. Mathunjwa implied that companies often claimed mines were no longer viable merely as a ploy to shed workers.

“These mines are closed for a certain period‚ then they are sold [months later]‚” Mathunjwa said.

He revealed that at one mine affected workers were even prepared to use their provident funds to gain equity‚ but the company would not hear them.

Reports indicate that mining companies are planning to retrench more than 23‚000 workers.

Mathunjwa said talks were continuing at a number of these mines. Strikes could break out if there were no agreements.

At AngloGold Ashanti‚ which has plans to shed 8‚500 jobs‚ an agreement was reached on adoption of retrenchment avoidance measures. “If they fail‚ then we'll go on strike – definitely‚” Mathunjwa said.

Amcu supported calls for radical economic transformation‚ Mathunjwa said. President Jacob Zuma's bloc in the ANC started the call this year ahead of the party's elective conference in December.

Mathunjwa said the Lonmin mineworkers that partook in the 2012 strike in Marikana‚ resulting in a massacre of 34 of them‚ were championing the call.

“Radical [means] to change things now. They wanted R12‚500. By that time the state killed the workers who wanted this radical economic transformation.

“Today it's very much fashionable to talk about radical economic transformation ... Amcu supports it and our members supported it with their blood to show that they are serious.”

Mathunjwa said Amcu would only support the Mining Charter proposed by Minister Mosebenzi Zwane if it were passed through parliament. Zwane has shelved the charter amid a court challenge by the Chamber of Mines.

It calls for transfer of 30% of ownership to black people. “We're saying this wish list‚ can it be incorporated into MPRDA (Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act)?” Mathunjwa said.

“Make it a legislation‚ and then we'll see that the minister is kind of serious about this. As for now it's just a code of good practice.”