South African miners rally after 12,000 sacked

2012-10-06 · first published in marxsite · 173 words

This was not a Socialist Resistance publication. marxsite was Phil Hearse’s own long-form site, run alongside the paper he helped edit. It is kept here with his agreement, recovered from the Internet Archive after the domain lapsed and was taken over by someone else; nothing here links to the address it now points at.

Only part of this piece survives. The capture it was recovered from is truncated, so the text below stops before the article did.

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Rustenburg: ( Newstribe )

Some of the 12,000 miners sacked by the world’s largest platinum producer in South Africa on Saturday gathered to protest their dismissal and mourn a colleague killed in clashes with police.

Around 100 miners started arriving at a stadium in the northern town of Rustenburg, to debate how to respond to the mass dismissal by Anglo American Platinum.

“Last night I received a message to say I’ve been dismissed because of the illegal strike,” said Mkhari, 23, who only started work two months ago.

“It’s not right. I’ve a lot of debt, a child, rent...” said his friend Mpoti, also 23.

Police armoured vehicles parked outside the stadium, while a helicopter circled the area.

Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Marikana a union branch leader at a different mine was shot dead Friday evening, his union said.

“A branch secretary of the union at Western Platinum was shot and killed at his house in Marikana this (Friday) evening,” said National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka in a statement.