 The national stayaway organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), ending a month-long protest action campaign against the rising cost of living and higher electricity tariffs, on Wednesday led to high absenteeism rates at a number of mines.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka told Mining Weekly Online that although he did not have a confirmed number of members joining in the protest action, “early indications show an almost 90% turnout”.
Spokesperson for Anglo Platinum, Simon Tebele, confirmed that an average absenteeism rate of 41% had been determined at its operations, but noted that all its operations were functioning.
However, the absenteeism rate at its Modikwa, Lebowa, and Twickenham operations were as high as 71%, while 51% of employees at the Polokwane smelter were absent.
AngloGold Ashanti spokesperson Alan Fine added that none of its shafts were operational on Wednesday, and that a “substantial proportion” of its employees were absent.
Further, Gold Fields spokesperson Daniel Thole commented that only 40% of employees at its Driefontein operation, 29% of employees at the Kloof mine, and 15% of employees at Beatrix, had been at work.
He added that, while only 7% of employees at the South Deep operation had been at work, the project was still in development, and production had continued as normal.
A number of other mining companies, including Harmony, had also been affected by the protest action.
Cosatu on Tuesday said it expected two-million workers to participate in the national stayaway.
Protesters on Wednesday marched to the Department of Minerals and Energy in Pretoria, Parliament in Cape Town, Durban City Hall in KwaZulu-Natal and a number of other locations in other provinces, to hand over memorandums of understanding.
Editor of the Cosatu’s Shopsteward magazine, Dominic Tweedie, told Mining Weekly Online that the number of members attending the strike today had “exceeded our expectations”.
Meanwhile, Chamber of Mines spokesperson Jabu Maphalala commented that different mining companies had been affected to different degrees, but said the strike had a “significant impact” on the industry as a whole.
He noted that the loss of production, of which an exact figure could not yet be determined, was concerning, for an industry that has “already been harmed to a large degree by a number of work stoppages owing to electricity, as well as last week’s protest action”.
Maphalala explained that the two quarterly reports of gold production had been far below comparative periods of the last year.
“For us, it is a disappointment. We would have hoped these issues would be clear to our social partners who have been part of the process of negotiations [in terms of the] electricity and production issues."
Further, Maphalala said the strike was especially negative for the coal mining industry that had already been struggling to meet capacity targets to supply power-utility Eskom with coal.
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