About 40% (nearly 4,500) Impala Platinum (Implats) workers did not report back for duty on Monday in the wake of the illegal three-day underground protest that threatened production and rattled investors in December.
Implats accounts for about 20% of global primary platinum group metals output every year and oversees about 70,000 employees across SA, Zimbabwe and Canada.
The group suspended mining activities in December at its Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine, which forms part of the Impala Bafokeng operations in the North West province, due to the three-day underground sit-in, spurred by Implats’ takeover of Royal Bafokeng Platinum in July 2023.
According to Implats’ website, Impala Bafokeng operations employ 11,141 workers. Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said: “We have normal attendance across the Impala Bafokeng business today [Monday] — with the exception of the North and South shaft where attendance is around 60% (the same shafts where we had the sit-in).”
Theron said there were no demands from workers. He was not sure “to what [extent] media reports of a potential disruption today [Monday] impacted attendance”.
“We are actively engaging with all stakeholders to understand and address any potential concerns at these two shafts as best we can,” he said.
Implats' share price underperformed in their sector on Monday, falling 3.5% to R80.95. Peers Anglo American Platinum and Northam were down 2.15% and 1.66%, respectively, while the JSE’s precious metals and mining index lost 1.89%.
NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu referred questions to NUM Rustenburg regional secretary Geoffrey Moatshe, who did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The mineworkers were expected to report back for work from their December holidays on Sunday but failed to do so, according to public broadcaster SABC. They had vowed to not resume operations until their demands relating to pension funds and the employee share scheme were addressed. In November, tragedy struck Implats when a cage hoisting miners to the surface crashed to the bottom of the shaft, killing 13 mineworkers.
The company said the underground sit-in in December, involving 2,205 employees, began at the North and South shafts of the operation’s Bafokeng Rasimone mine, and took place from December 18. It was based on “several misinterpretations and misunderstandings brought to the fore by the recent change in ownership at Impala Bafokeng”.
The misunderstandings included “the view that accumulated pension fund balances of employees can be paid out to employees; a view that statutory taxation provisions should not apply to award and/or bonus payments; [and] concerns pertaining to the historical employee profit share arrangement being converted, at the election of employees, into an employee share ownership trust”.
Implats confirmed in November that a targeted voluntary separation process with its employees was under way, joining its peer group Sibanye-Stillwater in reviewing their cost base as the plunge in metal prices strained cash flows.
Meanwhile, mining company Gold One has dismissed 401 mineworkers who took part in illegal underground protests.
Gold One head of legal Ziyaad Hassam said those dismissed had a right to challenge their dismissals through an internal appeals process. “We will, in all likelihood, replace the vast majority of the fired employees.
“This will give us an opportunity to re-examine our operational requirements as we go into the new year. There are no indications we will be downsizing any time soon, so we will be replacing those employees,” Hassam said on Monday.
In October, 543 Gold One mineworkers were trapped underground for three days by their colleagues over a union recognition dispute. A second hostage drama underground at Gold One’s Modder East shaft in Springs, east of Johannesburg, lasted more than three days in December.
The incidents were triggered after Gold One management evidently refused to recognise the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) as the majority union at the mine. Amcu claims to represent almost all of the nearly 2,000 mineworkers at Gold One, which counts the China Development Fund as an investor.
Gold One management had a closed-shop agreement with the rival National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which effectively meant that workers at the gold miner must be NUM members.
However, in November, NUM announced it dissolved the agreement after a spate of violence and intimidation.
Amcu general secretary Jeff Mphahlele and NUM president Dan Balepile could not be reached immediately for comment.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.