The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has reached an agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater after signing a three-year wage deal which sees salaries increase by R650 for the first year, R700 for the second and R825 for the third year.
Amcu president, Joseph Mathunjwa, says that the end of the strike shows that their members cannot be continuously bullied by white monopoly capital.
“The fight that we are fighting is not just a wage increase; we are fighting an apartheid legacy of which was created mainly for black workers, in particular in the mining sector through the years, of which our government is not prepared to entertain it in as much as we contribute. I mean if one can say, 5% of the GDP, but in terms of beneficiation, surely we are above 60%. And this is has been continuing from 1994 to date. So this is a revolution of workers or members of Amcu fighting to emancipate themselves from these tentacles of the economy that is one-sided.”
Mathunjwa says that Amcu was under no political pressure to sign the agreement.
“We have no political pressure; I think government was under pressure. We are not associated to any political formation here in South Africa, we are independent.”
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