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Gwede Mantashe meets with Sibanye-Stillwater, unions after workers boo Ramaphosa off stage on Worker's Day

Details

MantasheFin24 reports that Sibanye-Stillwater and striking unions at the company’s gold mines met with Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe on Monday after President Cyril Ramaphosa was heckled and forced to abandon attempts at addressing a Worker's Day rally in Rustenburg on Sunday.

Another meeting between Sibanye and the striking unions, namely the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), is set to take place on Thursday. As the strike over wages at Sibanye's gold mines in Gauteng and the Free State entered its eighth week, there was no sign of an agreement in sight. Sibanye’s James Wellsted confirmed that the parties met with Mantashe, where he urged them to continue engaging until they reached a settlement. The meeting was prompted after Ramaphosa's address at a Cosatu rally at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Sunday was reportedly disrupted by aggrieved Sibanye employees who refused to allow him to speak. Against a demand for an R1,000 increase in each year of a three-year wage agreement, Sibanye has recently adjusted its offer for Category 4 to 8 employees upwards to propose annual increases of R800 plus an R50 increase in the living-out allowance each year. The striking unions could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but on Twitter the NUM, which is a Cosatu affiliate, commented on how the Worker's Day rally unfolded, saying that it was "very unfortunate" that proceedings were "disrupted by workers at their own event".

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lisa Steyn at Fin24
  • Read too, Rally organisers ‘must account’ for Cyril’s retreat, says ANC Veterans’ League, at SowetanLive


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