The world's largest platinum producer today fired 12,000 workers taking part in a three-week unofficial strike after following through on tough talk over wildcat stoppages in South African mines.
Anglo American Platinum's move comes after two months of labour unrest has spread from mines to other parts of Africa's biggest economy, causing political problems for President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress (ANC), the veteran liberation movement long closely tied to unions.
More than 75,000 miners, or 15 per cent of the workforce in a sector that accounts for 6 per cent of output, have been out on unofficial strikes over wages, and tensions with security forces and mining bosses are running high.
Near the "platinum belt" city of Rustenburg, 120km northwest of Johannesburg, workers said a miner was killed by a rubber bullet fired by police overnight. Police would not confirm the cause of the death, although the ground nearby was strewn with spent rubber-bullet shell casings and teargas canisters after clashes involving water cannon the previous evening.
Protesters in a shanty town near the Amplats mine today barricaded streets with rocks and burning tyres, watched by a contingent of more than 30 riot police backed by armoured vehicles.
Earlier in the week, strikers torched an Amplats training centre and two conveyor belts, making it harder to restart operations when it does manage to resolve the standoff.
AngloGold Ashanti, South Africa's biggest bullion producer, has lost virtually all local production due to wildcat strikes, while rivals Gold Fields and Harmony Gold have also taken a hit. Around 300 strikers at Kumba Iron Ore have also blockaded the company's giant Sishen iron ore mine in the remote Northern Cape
province.
Shell said today it could not honour fuel delivery contracts around Johannesburg because of a two-week truckers' strike. Police shot dead another striking miner overnight, taking the death toll to 48 in the worst labour unrest since the end of apartheid.
The rand fell 2 per cent to within sight of a three-year low against the dollar amid fears the ANC is powerless to manage the spreading labour unrest.
Mr Zuma has been criticised for his low-key response, especially after police killed 34 strikers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on August 16th.
In a speech to business leaders late on Thursday he put a positive spin on the situation, stressing that since the end of white-minority rule South Africans have shown "the capacity to overcome difficulties when we work together".
"We should not seek to portray ourselves as a nation that is perpetually fighting," he said.
However, with an ANC leadership run-off looming in December, Nelson Mandela's 100-year-old liberation movement is preoccupied with its own divisions and Mr Zuma is unlikely to take any action to stabilise the economy that could upset his political allies in the unions.
Reuters