On January 23, 70 000 members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) followed their leader, Joseph Mathunjwa, into strike action at the Rustenburg mines of Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum, many of them lossmaking, so giving in to basic entry-level pay for all miners of R12 500 a month was a very tall order. But, 11 weeks later, these platinum workers were still at it, despite having lost R5-billion in wages owing to the ‘no work, no pay’ rule. Some 0.42% of South Africa’s R2.65-trillion gross domestic product is down the drain as a result of the legal but economically devastating AMCU strike, which has already seen 20% lopped off yearly earnings of workers, who lose 2% of their salary for every week that they are not at work.