More than 15 000 workers affiliated to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) have downed tools at all the Sibanye-Stillwater gold mines across the country.
This comes after negotiations between management and the union deadlocked over workers’ wages and safety.
AMCU’s president Joseph Mathunjwa says a lack of investment by mining companies is negatively affecting the safety of workers.
He says the top ten executives earn millions of rands a month including bonuses but are refusing to give workers a R12 500 minimum wage.
“AMCU started the protected strike at Sibanye- Stillwater from Free State region and also west Wits region of which it affects Driefontein mines and also it affects Kloof mines and all its shafts and Beatrix in Welkom. What we seek to achieve as AMCU is for our members to have a decent living wage,” says Mathunjwa.
