Hard Labour
Written by: Arehan Brand
The Marikana Massacre of 16 August 2012 was only the opening scene to the now 17-week-long Platinum miners’ strike movie, which saw them forfeiting R7.9 billion in wages.
While the ‘Big Three’, Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats), are buckling under the pressure of the striking miners’ demands of a R12 500 entry-level salary, they still fight to keep their head above water and maintain profits.
Since 23 January 2014, 70 000 miners in the Rustenburg Platinum belt have downed their mining equipment and gone on strike. After countless negotiations between Platinum mining companies and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), some miners still refuse to accept the latest offers on the table.
Terry Bell, a South African political, economic and labour analyst, described this strike as a ‘demand not just for pay, but for human dignity’.
As if the longest and most expensive strike in the history of the South African mining industry isn’t enough for the Big Three, they still have to deal with the rivalry between NUM and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).
The Union Politics:
The spat between South Africa’s two biggest mining sector unions has come a long way. It all began in 1998 when AMCU broke away from the NUM, who was and still is a member of the Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU). Since 2012, AMCU has grown and enlisted many NUM members.
AMCU is famous for being rebellious when it comes to wage negotiations. NUM, on the other hand, sticks to the ‘older’ model of negotiating. Although AMCU is seen by some as the best option when it comes to wage negotiations, many miners still remain with the NUM (it was reported to be between 60% and 70% in 2013, but the numbers kept changing).
Many miners, especially those who moved to AMCU, were dissatisfied with the way the NUM confronted negotiations as it easily accepted an offer, often putting the living conditions of its members in jeopardy. AMCU, however, does not settle quickly. In fact, previous strikes showed that they often only settle once the original demand has been met.
Keep in mind that the NUM is a COSATU faction, which itself is also an African National Congress (ANC) faction. The ANC is obsessed with foreign investment and it would only make sense for NUM to accept the first offer on the table. AMCU, on the other hand, and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) share ideologies. It is clear that some underlying agendas drive these two major political parties. The EFF prophesised in 2013 that ‘COSATU will soon be swallowed into the same politics of reforms, and all those who push for a radical agenda will be isolated… The dominant ANC/SACP (South African Communist Party) faction in COSATU will rid it of independent progressive leaders’.
The EFF considers Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of COSATU, as one of these ‘independent progressive’ leaders. In 2013, Vavi was suspended after having sexual relations with a colleague but has since been re-instated after a court hearing found that he was dismissed unlawfully.
This is where the conflict hits the fan: companies make an offer, which satisfies the NUM, but AMCU isn’t willing to settle just yet. The predicament is that when the NUM members return to work, AMCU’s members should too but they aren’t willing to as they know they can get better pay packages and that it is only a matter of striking a bit longer. If NUM members return to work, it also shows the Big Three that the offer is ‘acceptable’. This again makes it harder for AMCU to achieve its demands. What happens next isn’t rocket science: AMCU members start intimidating NUM members when they return to work. Intimidation by AMCU members has reached the point that NUM members have to be escorted to and from work.
The NUM/AMCU feud reached its critical point in August 2012, after the Marikana bloodbath, the worst massacre since the end of Apartheid in 1994. August 16, 2012 saw 44 people killed in a crossfire between police officers and mine workers armed with machetes and traditional weapons. The week leading up to the massacre saw the deaths of four miners and two police officers, who were hacked to death. It is understood by the Farlam Commission (the Marikana Commission of Enquiry) that tensions ran high in the Marikana area and that an eventful week was inevitable.
A ‘peace agreement’ has also been set up in an attempt to allow both unions to try to meet each other halfway, which the NUM was more than happy to sign but AMCU to this day refuses to sign. The question that looms over the past few weeks is whether we can expect to see another Marikana soon? Tensions are running high in the Platinum belt and the chances of another massacre taking place look greater by the day.
The current strike action has already halted about 40% of the global production of Platinum. One of the Big Three, Lonmin, expected a mass return of 60% of its miners last week after they set up a database of information in an effort to communicate with the striking miners.
Lonmin bypassed NUM to communicate their latest pay offer personally to the miners via major rallies and SMSes. According to a SMS database, they alleged that a large number of miners were willing to return but were intimidated by AMCU members.
Instead of the database being a useful tool, it’s become a liability. Some of the information, such as the names of miners who were willing to return to work, was somehow leaked to AMCU members, who then used this information to create a hit-list. Four NUM members were butchered.
AMCU leader Joseph Mathunjwa responded to this accusation: “All I know is that we are in a strike and we are conducting it peacefully. None of the members at head office know of any leaks in Lonmin. The last we checked, Lonmin was sending SMSes to our members. That’s all the information we have.”
But the NUM’s Rustenburg secretary, Sydwell Dlokwana is singing a different tune. According to Dlokwana, they have people in AMCU who have reported that AMCU leadership gave instructions that union members should ‘report their neighbours if they are seen going to work’.
Lonmin confirmed the use of a database to communicate with their employees but said they weren’t sure whether the leak came from their side. Lonmin spokesperson Happy Nkhoma said that only their most trusted managers can access this database.
While tensions are running high, almost two years ago, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa promised (as he has countless times) to put a stop to the intimidation and violence in the Platinum belt. The day after he made this vow, a regional police spokesperson Thulani Ngubane said that no arrests had yet been made: “The perpetrators are known and it is only a matter of time.” A matter of time until what? The arrests or more violent intimidation and deaths of miners willing to go to work and earn an honest living?
Mthethwa seems to want to be seen as a ‘big shot’ with all his threats and vows, yet all they are so far is empty words, which proves the point that the South African Police Services (SAPS) cannot be taken seriously.
President Jacob Zuma was also criticised for keeping mum and never addressing the unrest among Platinum miners. When he eventually gave the matter some attention, he responded by saying: “We should not be subjective about our own positions.”
The losses and worries:
Implats announced last week that it had already lost 131 000 ounces of production due to the strike action. Their production percentage dropped by whopping 41% from the same period in 2013. Their main operations still remain shut and can only consider resuming once the risk of violence and intimidation has been eliminated.
Lonmin announced that the current strike situation already resulted in their not being able to reach sales targets of 750 000 ounces of platinum for the 2014 financial year.
Impala Platinum announced that their miners lost out on a staggering R1,4 billion on salaries since the start of the strike – talk about ‘strikers with a cause’. It comes as no surprise when AMCU leadership says that it would ‘die here (Marikana) if they needed to, but they won’t settle for less than they came out to play for’.
AMCU worker representative Tsepo Motloi knows that their demand of R12 500 can be met: "When a CEO can earn R22 million, how can they say they do not have money? How can it be that a person who works in a nice environment all day, such as an office at the municipality, earns more than a person who is going underground digging rock? When I go down that shaft, I do not know if I will come out alive. If I go down at 4 A.M., I go down before the sun is up and come out when it has set."
The latest offer made by companies stands at 10%, which will only see miners earning their demand in 2017. Another contributing reason for AMCU’s reluctance to settle just yet can be ascribed to the fact that they don’t trust Lonmin. A month after the Marikana incident, Lonmin agreed to a 22% wage increase for miners but it was never paid out. When Lonmin was questioned about it (via e-mails and written letters), it refused to respond.
Lonmin miners were also ‘soft-soaped’ by their employers by means of a R2 000 pay-out if they returned to the mines after the massacre. According to some miners who returned, the R2 000 was deducted from their salaries.
According to Platinumwagenegotiations.co.za, the strike action already made companies lose out on R19 billion in revenue while miners forfeited R8, 5 billion in wages – these figures keep on growing by the minute.
With our two unions in this mining sector at each other’s throats, the SAPS are unable to control the crowds and mining CEOs earning fortunes while miners are unable to earn R12 500 a month, it is clear that our mining sector is in serious trouble and something drastic needs to be done very swiftly.