No festivities for Sibanye Stillwater mineworkers as retrenchments begin

As the festive season is almost at its peak, it’s doom and gloom for many Sibanye Stillwater mineworkers. The mine has started retrenching some of its employees at its Marikana operations in Rustenburg in North West.

The mine announced in September that it intended to retrench 5 270 of its employees as part of restructuring at the former Lonmin operations.

The mining company says all the stakeholders have been engaged, but they could not find any alternative to job losses.

“This review, unfortunately, concluded that certain shafts which had been in operation since the 1960s and 70s at the Marikina operations had reached the end of their operable lives, putting approximately 5 270 jobs at risk,” says the mine’s spokesperson, James Wellsted.

One of the retrenched mineworkers is Makgale Makgoba from Limpopo, “We received the letter this Wednesday, which told us, you no longer working here. We’ve been forcefully retrenched, they going to call us if there are any movements. But then, we don’t know how long we’re going to stay at home.”

AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa reacts to the retrenchments.