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South Africa: Industrial action in mining sector ends, tensions remain
(Reuters) – The last of a wave of illegal strikes that have swept South Africa’s mining sector ended on Thursday after workers accepted an offer from Anglo American Platinum Ltd, the world’s top producer of the precious metal.
South Africa’s platinum and gold sectors have been rocked for months by industrial action, spawned by income disparities and a union turf war for members, and more conflict could be sparked by looming job cuts and wage talks next year.
The labor unrest has rattled investors in the continent’s largest economy.
“All the workers are returning to work,” said Evans Ramokga, a strike leader at Amplats, a unit of troubled global mining group Anglo American Plc., which has struggled for two months to get more than 30,000 employees back to work at several of its South African mines.
The company has offered either an additional monthly allowance of 600 rand (US$67.42) or a monthly salary increase of 400 rand, as well as a one-off 4,500 rand (US$505.65).
Amplats has said the strikes would cut annual profit by more than a fifth and tensions in the sector remain, with 37 workers scheduled to appear in court on Thursday after being arrested for violence during protests near a chrome mine run by Xstrata Plc.
South Africa’s boardrooms and politicians may breathe a sigh of relief as the worst labor unrest since the end of apartheid in 1994 winds down, but uncertainties still cloud the picture.
