Second day of miners’ sit-in

• Bosses and union work to get miners back above ground as sit-in at Wesizwe’s flagship mine enters second day

About 250 mineworkers at Bakubung Platinum Mine in North West have barricaded themselves in the mine for two days in a bid to extract concessions from management, in yet another incident of mineworkers resorting to illegal tactics to settle industrial disputes.

About 250 miners at Bakubung Platinum Mine in North West have barricaded themselves in the mine for two days in a bid to extract concessions from management, in yet another incident of miners resorting to illegal tactics to settle industrial disputes.

Business Day understands that chief among the frustrations of the workers affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers are unresolved issues from the costly August unprotected strike at the mine, which went on for five weeks.

The workers want their pay to be benchmarked with that of the industry, claiming their pay is far less than their peers in the sector.

Bakubung’s parent company, Wesizwe, said it became aware of an illegal underground sit-in at its 77 level shaft on Wednesday morning.

“This led to the failure of the next shift to assume their responsibilities. On the same day and afternoon, management acted swiftly to diffuse and correct the situation. This has been done by having a meeting with the representatives of the aggrieved and participating employees of the underground sit-in,” the company said.

“Several issues have been outlined as the grievances and causes of the underground sitin. These include changes to the minimum requested remuneration for employees, changes to employees’ benefits, subsidies and working conditions.”

The mine’s bosses cancelled the morning and afternoon shifts on Thursday, meaning loss of two days of production.

“This is to ensure the safety of the rest of our staff and eliminate possibilities of community unrest, which may arise and pose a danger to staff and mine assets.”

Wesizwe two weeks ago cited the August month-long strike and several incidents of community unrest in the past two years as among the reasons 571 jobs are on the line in a mine that employs 761 people.

Consultations over the retrenchment process are still ongoing. The company has already stopped overtime and weekend work and has not renewed contracts of mining contract services and fixed-term contracts as part of its measures to rein in costs.

The industrial tensions at Bakubung are the second such incident in as many weeks to affect the mining industry. In October, a hostage situation over a dispute about union recognition played itself out at gold miner Gold One, ending after three days when 543 mineworkers trapped underground by their colleagues resurfaced.

The Bakubung mine is about 35km northwest of Rustenburg, North West, in the Bushveld Complex. It is in the early stages of production after numerous delays, caused in part by technical glitches at its processing plant and Covid-19 in 2020.

The construction of the mine started in 2011 and was scheduled to come into full production in late 2020 before the pandemic delayed things, followed by community protests.

The project is expected to produce 420,000oz of platinum group metals (PGM) a year once it reaches full production, with a life cycle of 30 years.

China-Africa Jinchuan Investments provided Wesizwe with a $227m (R4.3bn) cash injection in exchange for a 45% stake in the junior PGM player, while China Development Bank provided $650m in project development funding.

The Bakubung mine, a twinshaft system, will deliver 1-million tonnes of ore a year to the processing plant, which has the same capacity.