ANA reports that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said on Wednesday that no new entrant mineworker when employed in the platinum mines should earn less than R10,000 a month on basic salary.  

Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said this at the fifth anniversary of the Marikana tragedy commemoration at the Nkaneng informal settlement, where 34 Lonmin mineworkers were killed when the police opened fire on them on 16 August 2012.  He recalled that when his union led a five-month long strike in the platinum mines in Rustenburg, it was said they were going to ruin the economy.  “What Amcu can report without fear of any contradictions is that we managed to dismantle solid apartheid foundations of which the salary of mineworkers were built upon.  To change the situation they (mineworkers) had to think outside the box…”  Mathunjwa also said a study conducted by Wits University found that the union’s R12,500 wage demand could have been achieved as far back as 2006.

• Read this report in full at The Citizen

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