Over 600 workers at Seriti Klipspruit Colliery in Mpumalanga face job losses as the company has issued a Section 189 notice of retrenchment to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
In response, NUM organised a march to the company’s Sandton offices to deliver a memorandum.
Some 100 coal miners affiliated with the NUM took to the streets to protest the impending retrenchments, delivering a memorandum of demands.
The company wants to replace permanent workers with contractors. The union has given management seven days to withdraw retrenchment notices and negotiate.
NUM Highveld Regional Chairperson Bizzah Motubatse says, “Setiti Klipspruit Colliery is not the first mine to have followed a similar process.”
A move the NUM has described as an attempt to weaken the unions.
‘We were once faced with such. Understanding that they occupy these office because of our hard work. They have forgotten that they are here through the struggle.”
The coal mining company supplies local and international markets including Eskom.
