South African Mines to Shed Thousands of Jobs

South African miners standoff with police at the Lonmin in Rustenburg. A massacre by police has resulted in over 30 reported deaths., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

South Africa mines to shed 1000 of jobs

Sunday, 25 Nov 2012

MENAFN reported that South Africa's key mining sector is set to shed thousands of jobs in the Q1 of next year and could see more strikes which recently rocked the industry.

Mr Bheki Sibiya CEO of Chamber of Mines said that "In terms of the retrenchments next year, Q1. I don't know the numbers but I can tell you it's probably in the thousands, possibly going above ten and maybe higher."

Mr Sibiya said that "Some people above ground are going to be retrenched and some people below ground are going to be retrenched because the industry is now literally between the rock and the hard place."

South Africa's mines, which directly contribute nine percent of GDP, were hit by a wave of paralyzing wildcat strikes from August that came on the back of already tough conditions that hit profitability.

A smaller and upstart union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, is seeking to muscle in the membership of the traditional National Union of Mines which has dominated for decades.

Mr Sibiya said that the industry would struggle to get the NUM and AMCU to negotiate and predicted that 2013 would will be extremely difficult for negotiations.

He said that "Therefore we may experience industrial action. However, because there would be retrenchments in the Q1 of 2013, they may affect really the intensity of the strikes."

Source - MENAFN

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