Pretoria – Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi says he has pulled his inter-governmental task team out of mining negotiations to exert pressure on platinum producers and unions to move towards a common ground.
The Minister also revealed that representatives of mine companies had, as of Friday last week, agreed to meet mining union Amcu’s demand for a basic salary of R12 500 a month, but said there were two issues that parties still needed to agree on.
Minister Ramatlhodi was briefing journalists, on Tuesday, on his decision to withdraw from facilitating negotiations between mining houses in the platinum belt and affected unions, in a bid to bring to an end a strike that has lasted for five months.
“Yesterday morning [Monday] was the last meeting facilitated by myself to resolve the impasse in the wage negotiations between labour union Amcu and Platinum producers Lonmin, Anglo Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats).
“Yesterday, I convened the parties to the dispute and I informed them formally that I was formally withdrawing from the process. The simple reason behind this is that I strongly believe that we have done enough work over the past two weeks through the technical task team … for the parties to be able to move forward. And I encourage them to move forward on their own,” he said.
The Minister dispelled perceptions that his withdrawal meant he was abandoning the parties, and said he was simply giving parties some space to engage further without government involvement, and that by doing so, he was exerting pressure for both sides to reach an agreement.
As the strike moves deeper into its fifth month, Stats SA announced last month that the country’s Growth Domestic Product (GDP) had slowed to 0.6% in the first quarter of 2014 due to a contraction of the mining sector.
At the time, Stats SA’s Statistician-General Pali Lehohla said the economic growth was at its lowest – worse than it was in 2009 when the country was in recession.
On Tuesday, Minister Ramatlhodi said the parties would continue to sit around one table to negotiate and he was satisfied with the progress that they have made ever since he intervened.
“As of Friday, the parties had agreed on the final demand, that is R12 500, but they are going to speak for themselves beyond this.
“There were two outstanding issues, the question of in how many years should [the R12 500 demand] be arrived at. Secondly, the question of living out allowance [which was going to be removed as an incentive to lift the basic salary]. So what was outstanding was when that would be removed,” he said.
As part of the deal for the living out allowance being removed, government would offer, as an incentive, a Presidential social housing package to affected mineworkers to contribut to eradicating informal housing for mineworkers.
“We have come to the party as government, which is the element that was not there before as to how government can contribute [to the negotiations].
“In any event, it is our responsibility … whether there was an impasse or not, it is our responsibility towards our citizens [to provide housing].”
He said, contrary to media reports, that he was not forced to withdraw from facilitating talks between the parties, saying he did so only after consulting with his principals, including the Ministers of Police, Labour, National Treasury and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. – SAnews.gov.za
