Pretoria News reports that scores of Sibanye-Stillwater mineworkers under the banner of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are bracing the freezing weather in Pretoria to urge President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene in their four-month long wage strike.

Mineworkers from Sibanye’s gold operations have been sleeping on the lawns at the Union Buildings since last week Thursday to demand intervention by the Presidency in their protracted wage negotiations. Mandla Mokadi, a representative of NUM, said the workers had gathered at the Union Buildings “because the president met with workers at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Workers Day and he promised the workers to engage with the mine's Chief Executive Officer." Mokadi claimed that following the meeting with Ramaphosa, the president instructed the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, to intervene. But, the only thing Mantashe had been able to do was to facilitate a meeting between the trade unions and the mine management, which fell through as the company stood by its mandate and so too did the workers. As a result of the continued impasse, workers had decided to come to the man who had promised them a solution as the employer remained adamant that it could not give workers a decent increase whilst at the same time awarding the CEO millions.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Goitsemang Tlhabye at Pretoria News

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