"Reject the mining sector blackmail'' NUM tells ANC

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) notes with serious concern the continuous threats by some platinum companies especially Aquarius to close their shafts in spite of attempts to avert the worst in the industry. The NUM perceives all these panic buttons pressed by the industry as nothing else but an attempt to blackmail the ruling party on the eve of its policy conference where the notion of state intervention in the mineral sector will come under the spotlight.

The NUM advises the ANC, the state and the alliance partners to reject the blackmail and move forward in getting sustainable solutions to the triple challenges facing the country. "It just cannot be right for the mineral sector to blackmail the ruling party and everyone in the country just to stop talking transformation which the themselves have generally refused to embrace" says Ecliff Tantsi, the NUM ‘s National Secretary for Education.

The NUM appeals to the Department of Mineral Resources to adopt a posture that says "Use it or lose it" in relation to mining licences. Thus, companies that are shutting down and retrenching workers must have licences revoked and awarded to those that have capacity to deal with current global economic challenges. "Management must have the creativity and capacity to manoeuvre when it is difficult but that creativity and capacity is not tantamount to shutting an operation and retrenching people" says Tantsi.

The NUM condemns the greedy pursuit of super-profits by the mining companies and the continuous threats and blackmail imposed on the South African nation in order to maintain the unsustainable status quo. South Africa is endowed with mineral wealth and yet is the second most unequal society in the world.

"We reject the blackmail, we reject the status quo mentality of the Chamber of Mines and its allies and we appeal to the ANC and the state to reject these too" says Tantsi.

"We are extending our hand to companies that are prepared to work with us in the interest of the country and themselves to come forward and do so in the task team set. To those that are not prepared, we say go well" says Tantsi

Statement issued by Ecliff Tantsi, NUM National Secretary for Education, June 26 2012

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