Mining companies looting SA – Mathunjwa

Trade union leader Joseph Mathunjwa has accused mining companies of looting the country and pouring their money into foreign investments rather than the domestic economy. Business Day reports that Mathunjwa‚ president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu)‚ said the country shouldn’t be surprised about the situation it found itself in. Speaking ahead of the five-year anniversary of the Marikana massacre, Mathunjwa said he and the union were worried about ‘the jobs blood bath’ in the gold sector and talk of retrenchments. At the same time, mining companies were ‘looting’ the country. He described the issue of retrenchments as ‘a broader social ill affecting the South African economy’. ‘Retrenchments are probably the worst thing that can happen to workers. It strips them of their income‚ their status in society and ultimately of their dignity‚’ he said. Mathunjwa said the union wanted to see ‘wage-led growth‚ meaning that people have decent jobs‚ earn decent wages and be able to spend their money to stimulate the economy’.

Mathunjwa laid the blame for the perilous state of affairs at the door of a number of factors including government and, specifically, Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane, reports Moneyweb. ‘Since Zwane joined, there has been no direction at all from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). He is now backtracking on the moratorium on mining licences because he said something that his ruling party did not agree with. We are in a crisis and they are dysfunctional.’ But, the report says, Mathunjwa also veered from his usual ambit involving issues of workers by criticising broader government policy. Taking about the economy, he said: ‘The challenge has been the lack of capacity to diversify the economy and create new industries. (Our) trade agreements do not promote local manufacturing. We should have a policy like Donald Trump that says “Africa and South Africa first".'

‘While Amcu is actively engaging in these retrenchment processes, it also referred a protest action notice in terms of section 77 of the Labour Relations Act to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). This notice will enable the union to embark on a nationwide strike,’ Mathunjwa is quoted in The Citizen as saying. Some of the avoidance measures proposed by Amcu include the unbundling of mining operations into smaller operations with lower overhead costs. Mathunjwa said such unbundling could drive real economic transformation in changing ownership patterns and addressing structural injustice by shifting assets to historically disadvantaged South Africans. ‘We are calling on all stakeholders, including the department of mineral resources to intervene where necessary so that a concerted solution-driven initiative can be triggered to prevent this jobs blood bath,’ Mathunjwa said.