The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has escalated the ongoing jobs bloodbath in the mining sector to the Presidency and Cabinet as mineworkers grow increasingly shaken by job losses across the industry.
This comes as Cosatu-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), marched at the weekend against Sibanye-Stillwater’s pending retrenchments of nearly 4 000 employees from its South African gold mining operations.
Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum are among the other large South African mining companies that have already said they plan to retrench mine employees and contractors.
While the NUM has upped the pressure on Sibanye-Stillwater, with other mining sector labour unions also sharply criticising the corporations for the retrenchments, Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks told Business Report in an interview that the union federation has been engaging the Presidency and Cabinet over the jobs bloodbath in the key resources sector.
“Cosatu has been engaging the Presidency, and Cabinet, and Transnet to address these and stave off the threats to jobs,” Parks said.
Mining executives have blamed depressed commodity prices, a poor economic framework and dilapidation in key infrastructure segments such as electricity, freight rail and ports for the decisions to scale down production, close some shafts and curtailing of further investment into the sector.
The mining executives expect the job cuts to help lower down cost pressures.
Parks said Cosatu was “pleased with the recent progress in appointing management and stabilising Transnet operations” which was aiding and providing some respite to the mining sector.
He also noted that there had also been an easing off of load shedding by Eskom which was providing further support for the mining industry.
“This is reducing the pressure on the mining and other critical export sectors. We had been alarmed by the impact the challenges that Transnet in particular has had on the mining sector,” added Parks.
This followed Cosatu’s extensive engagements with policy makers under the auspices of the Presidency logistics work streams and the National Economic Development and Labour Council.
Cosatu said local mining companies that were continuing to retrench thousands of mineworkers needed to explore alternatives to lay-offs, including “reducing the exorbitant salaries paid to management and executives or delaying dividend” payouts to shareholders.
The NUM has previously called for a moratorium on retrenchments in the PGM mining sector.
However, mining industry sources said there was unlikely to be respite for the PGM sector retrenchments, given the continued plunge in prices of the precious metal.
Trade union group UASA previously told Business Report that the jobs bloodbath in the SA mining industry was of “grave concern”.
What was making the current wave of retrenchments worse was the inability of other miners to absorb the retrenched workers.
“In previous years, the other mines could absorb the retrenched employees, but with the current massive amount of retrenched employees, there is no alternate work for them,” said Abigail Moyo, spokesperson for UASA.
“Where will they find food and money to pay for school fees, water lights, and more. What will happen to the extended families, not even to address the contractors that are linked to mining?”
BUSINESS REPORT