Zondereinde losing R13m a day, will do ‘utmost’ to protect employees

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Northam Platinum’s Zondereinde platinum mine, in Limpopo, has not suffered direct damage to any property owing to the current unrest at the mine, however, the loss of production has been about R13-million a day.

Nevertheless, Northam said it would do its “utmost” to ensure the safety of its employees at the mine but stressed that it could not protect them when they were not on the company’s property.

Northam halted operations at Zondereinde on Monday, following the death of an employee and a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) member, who was gunned down in Northam town, about 20 km from the mine, on Sunday, which resulted in incidents of violence at the mine.

Another employee, an Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) member, was killed near the mine on Monday morning in continued disruptions.

Northam projects and strategy manager Rene Rautenbach informed Mining Weekly Online on Thursday that the company had substantially increased the number of private security personnel at the mine to monitor potential flash points.

In addition, he pointed out that the South African Police Service had also deployed additional personnel to the mine.

Meanwhile, the NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu commented that, as the NUM was the recognised union at Zondereinde, it had had meetings with the police and Northam’s management on Monday and Tuesday to deal with the safety of its members who had been killed and to try find a lasting solution to the unrest.

“We are also empowered in terms of the Labour Relations Act to hold meetings with the management,” said the NUM, adding that AMCU was not a recognised union at Northam Platinum.

“Since last year, five NUM members have been killed and the perpetrators are still at large and they have not been arrested. Some of the perpetrators are employees of Northam,” the NUM alleged.

“NUM members are truly worried about their safety,” added Mammburu.