Fin24 reports that about 1,700 miners refused to return to the surface of Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu mine on the West Rand on Wednesday, with the gold producer saying they had embarked on an illegal sit-in.  

The company said in a statement:  “The sit-in started on Wednesday, 11 January when employees chose not to return to surface at the end of the morning shift.  No formal demands have been made by the participating employees.  Management has sought to engage with union leadership with the purpose of resolving the matter and returning all employees to surface.”  The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said via Twitter on Thursday that it was trying to establish what the workers’ demands were.

• Read this report in full at Fin24

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