Miners should reclaim struggle - DSM

Johannesburg - Miners need to take back control in the mining sector, the Democratic Socialist Movement said on Monday.

“It is necessary for mineworkers to maintain unity and realise that there is need for a serious national campaign to unite workers for a common good wage and wage increases,” said spokesperson Mametlwe Sebei.

“We need to unite for wage demands in each and every mine. This is an important historical process and workers need to reclaim their own struggle.”

The DSM was formed in 1979 by expelled African National Congress members. It was re-founded in October 2002 at a conference attended by 45 people in KwaZulu-Natal, according to Wikipedia.

Miners have been on strike since September for monthly salaries of between R12 500 and R16 000.

The DSM had formed a national strike committee in each of the regions hit by industrial action in the mining industry in the last two months, Sebei said.

The committee consisted of striking workers' representatives elected to take part in negotiations with the mining companies and unions.

The DSM addressed strikers at Harmony Gold's Kusasalethu mine on Monday.

Sebei said they agreed to continue discussions.

“We have decided to suspend the strike at Harmony Gold in order to give chance for a resolution and for the necessary processes to unfold,” he said.

A Harmony Gold spokesperson could not immediately confirm this. The Chamber of Mines, however, said on Monday that an agreement would be signed on Thursday to bring normality to the gold mining industry and to end the strikes.

The Chamber of Mines, representing Anglogold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold, met with the National Union of Mineworkers, Solidarity and Uasa on Monday.

“It is most pleasing to note that large numbers of employees have returned to work and strikes on a number of operations have ended,” the chamber's Elize Strydom said in a statement.

She said the discussions were positive and there was a collective resolve to end the strikes quickly.

“The gold mining industry is going through some turbulent times. We now have to put all our efforts into stabilising the gold mining sector and returning the industry to normality.” - Sapa