Strike resolution institutions 'need to work'

According to a Business Times report, the new minister said the recently concluded strike took so long to resolve partly because 'our institutions like Nedlac and the CCMA need to work'. Ramatlhodi said the strike showed the balance between labour and mining companies had been upset, and the government should intervene. Ramatlhodi has called for the system of balloting, in which workers vote on when to strike, to be changed. Decisions to strike are typically taken in mass meetings through a show of hands by union members, which can lead to intimidation. However, the report says, unions have strongly rejected the call for secret balloting Full Business Times report

Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), will write a letter to Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) to enquire about plans to sell off some of its platinum mines in the Rustenburg area. Moneyweb reports that this was after a weekend report in the British press said that Anglo American plans to sell some of its SA platinum mines as part of a $4bn plan by CEO Mark Cutifani to phase out under-performing assets. According to the report, the disposals will include some of the oldest and deepest platinum shafts, as well as nickel and copper mines. Mathunjwa said he was unaware of the report and said the union has not been informed or consulted on the planned disposals. The report quotes Chris Jacobs, labour expert at OIM International, as saying that employers usually only communicate about such plans when they are fairly certain that they will succeed. He said during the strike there were rumours that some of the deep shafts may be sold and that Amplats may in future rather focus on open cast mining. Full Moneyweb report

Amcu's victory may be short lived, agrees a Sunday Tribune report - platinum companies approached for comment on assertions from Mathunjwa that they had agreed to hold back on retrenchments say this is not true. All three companies say while they have undertaken to do all they can to avoid cutting down their workforce, they will only know later if any action needs to be taken. 'There is nothing in the (wage) agreement that puts a moratorium on restructuring... But our immediate priority is to get the mines up and running. And there is a commitment among all of us to ensure retrenchments are mitigated as much as possible,' Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said. Amplats spokesperson Mpumi Sithole agreed that the wage settlement did not prevent the companies from embarking on retrenchments. Full Sunday Tribune report

Gilad Issacs for GROUNDUP writing in the Daily Maverick, says what the increases gained in the agreement mean for the lives of the workers and the fortunes of the platinum producers is difficult to quantify. However, he says, it is possible to compare the implications - for workers and company costs - of the various offers, demands and the final settlement. Full Daily Maverick analysis The platinum strike's full cost

There is widespread acceptance that mining as a whole, and the platinum industry in particular, is at a crossroads, writes Jay Naidoo, the founding general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions in a Business Times report. He says tackling the multiple social issues on the mining belt is a precondition and a catalyst for a new mining deal that falls in the Framework Agreement for Sustainable Mining. And central to building a social consensus and trust is the role and voice of civil society, including human rights NGOs, churches and development organisations. Traditional structures, too, will play a role in creating peaceful communities, monitoring service delivery and launching initiatives for social reconstruction, Naidoo argues. The needs of mining communities are reasonable and guaranteed under our constitution. But, he says, the political will of leaders across the spectrum is essential. Full Business Times report

Over R460m has been set aside by the North West provincial government for housing projects in the mining area of Marikana. Mining Weekly quotes North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo as saying that for the next three years his administration will pay attention to the troubled mining area. He said through the partnership with mining house Lonmin and the Rustenburg Local Municipality, the provincial government will build 2,000 housing units over three years with an initial phase of 192 Breaking New Ground (BNG) houses and 252 community residential units. The provincial government has also bought land in Marikana for human settlement. Full Mining Weekly report

Meanwhile, emboldened by a marathon strike, Amcu organisers are now gunning to recruit members on platinum belt mines still under the control of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). According to a Mail & Guardian report, labour researchers said Amcu will now have to start systematically targeting smaller mines at which it had not managed to win over workers. Sphamandla Makhanya, a strike leader from Amcu said many of those workers had no union and had disassociated themselves from the NUM in 2012. The NUM said that it would be making a 'deep and overall analysis of the mining sector' at a central committee meeting in July. It said that each worker had lost between R42,000 and R52,000, and that to gain only R932 was 'not worth celebrating'. Full Mail & Guardian report