Unrest .in South Africa ..[ 2899 ]

Workers, Police Battle in South Africa

Gunfight at Platinum Mine Leaves Several Dead; Police Say They Responded to Shots by Protesters

• AFRICA NEWS
• Updated August 17, 2012, 2:54 a.m. ET

By DEVON MAYLIE and PATRICK MCGROARTY

Reuters

A policeman gestures in front of the bodies of miners who were shot dead outside the Marikana platinum mine in South Africa.

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JOHANNESBURG—The death toll in a deadly clash between police and platinum mine workers of Lonmin LMI.LN -1.85% PLC climbed Friday, as South African health and union officials said at least 25 people died.

The faceoff was the latest deadly labor battle in Africa's largest economy, where a power struggle between unions has sparked violent outbursts at mines and frustrations over high unemployment and economic inequalities have fueled protests in poor townships.

South African police fired on striking platinum workers wielding pistols and machetes, resulting in an unknown death toll and deepening labor turmoil in the continent's largest economy. Peter Wonacott has details on The News Hub. Photo: Reuters.

Thursday's clashes occurred at the sole operating mine of Lonmin LMI.LN -1.85% the world's third-largest platinum producer, where some 3,000 rock drillers have been on strike since Aug. 10, demanding higher wages as part of a battle between two unions seeking to represent them.

Police tried unsuccessfully to disperse a crowd of protesting workers who were camped out near the mine, according to accounts by South African police and a miners' union. Miners attacked first with weapons including machetes and guns, these people said, and police responded with fire.

Tebogo Lekgethwane, from North West provincial health department, said that 25 bodies were taken from the Lonmin mine to the mortuary in Rustenburg, but couldn't confirm the final death toll.

"We know there was open fire from the police," he said.

The account was corroborated by Lesiba Seshoka, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers, although he said as many 35 people died in Thursday's clash. NUM leaders were heading to the mine Friday morning to meet with police.

Joseph Mathunjwa, the president of a rival union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, said it wasn't clear who fired first. He blamed the mine's management and the NUM for not recognizing his union, which led to the standoff.

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A miner ran outside the mine. Police had previously urged the miners to give up their weapons and go home to their hostels and shacks.

Footage on eNews Channel, a 24-hour news station, showed police approaching machete- and club-carrying protesters and firing tear gas into the crowd. A volley of gunfire followed. The footage showed several bodies lying motionless. It wasn't clear whether police had used live ammunition or rubber bullets.

The Associated Press reported that South Africa's police ministry said more than 30 striking workers were killed. An investigation into the shooting has begun.

"The South African Police Service was viciously attacked by the group, using a variety of weapons, including firearms," a police spokesman said. "The police, in order to protect their own lives and in self-defense, were forced to engage the group with force."

The Aug. 10 strike at the Lonmin mine in Rustenburg, about 60 miles northwest of Johannesburg, turned violent quickly. On Monday, during a clash between police and striking workers, several firearms were stolen from officers, police said. Later that day, miners attacked officers, said police spokesman Thulani Ngubane, in a shootout that left two officers and one mine employee dead. In all, 10 people had died in clashes leading up to Thursday's confrontation.

The violence has cut the company's output. Adding to its troubles, Lonmin said Thursday that CEO Ian Farmer was hospitalized with a serious but unspecified illness. Company shares closed 6.8% lower on Thursday.

President Jacob Zuma said he was alarmed and saddened by the degeneration in the industrial dispute. "We are shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence," he said in a statement, calling on the labor movement and company to work with the government to stabilize the situation.

Lonmin Chairman Roger Phillimore suggested responsibility for the violence rested with police. "We deeply regret the further loss of life in what is clearly a public order rather than labor-relations-associated matter," he said in a written statement.

Africa's largest economy is expected to grow just 2.7% this year, according to the country's central bank, far below the 7% annual rate that government officials say would be necessary to create significant numbers of jobs. The official unemployment rate is 24.9%, and economists say half of South Africans under age 34 are out of work.

"This could be the start of a far more political reaction across the country, given the protest action we already face," said Frans Cronje, deputy chief executive at the South African Institute of Race Relations. "The political and social tension is now coming to the fore."

The tensions could intensify political jockeying in the country's ruling African National Congress as it heads it toward votes on its new leader this year. President Zuma is seeking to retain his post atop the party, which would all but ensure him another term as president. The ANC consistently garners more than 60% of the vote in national elections. Several top figures in the party are rumored to be weighing challenges to Mr. Zuma's leadership, but no one has announced a candidacy.

By many measures, the ANC has done well since gaining power in 1994. The end of international sanctions that had strangled the economy, and helped bring about apartheid's end, ushered in a record 15 years of growth up to the global financial crisis in 2009. But cheap housing and social grants haven't sated demand for education and work opportunities that could offer a pathway to more self-determined advances.

"We have achieved political democracy but not yet economic democracy for all," says Mthuli Ncube, the African Development Bank's chief economist and a native South African.

Today, the country's economic inequality is among the starkest in the world, wider than in Brazil and India. In one of the developed world's most inflexible labor markets, those with state and unionized jobs reap regular raises—often rewarded after protracted strikes—while the unemployed masses have little chance of finding work.

In 2010, the most recent year for which complete government data are available, the number of working days lost to strikes rose to a record 20.6 million, 10 times as high as in the previous year. The bulk of the work stoppages in 2010 came during a public-workers strike over higher pay demands. The strike kept nurses out of hospitals, teachers out of schools and customs officials from border points.

The most recent violence at Lonmin spun from a rivalry between the emerging Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, or AMCU, and NUM, the country's largest mine union, who are competing for majority union membership in South Africa's platinum mines. After workers allied with the AMCU went on an illegal "wildcat strike" at Lonmin, police have unsuccessfully tried to get them to return to the mine.

The AMCU has said it is recruiting in the platinum-producing region because of the industry's low wages. It says it plans to expand across the country and is already recruiting in iron-ore and coal-producing areas.

In February, a clash between the rivals closed the largest mine of Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. IMP.JO +0.36% for six weeks. During that strike, police reported three people were killed. Just before the shootings on Thursday, the company gave striking workers until Friday to return to work or face dismissal.

The Impala shutdown also led to the loss of 120,000 ounces of platinum production. Impala said it lost two billion rand, or roughly $250 million, in revenue because of the strike.

Three other people died when fired contract workers attacked an Aquarius Platinum Holdings Ltd. mine earlier this month.

The rival unions have blamed each other for the violence. The NUM is part of South Africa's Congress of South African Trade Unions, an ally to the country's ruling African National Congress, which played a key role in anti-apartheid protests.

"This is the first time a substantial body of workers is splitting away" from the ANC's union, said Devan Pillay, a labor-relations professor at Wits University. He said worker frustrations that NUM leaders have become too close to company management, and that the ANC-connected union has become too close to the government, have opened opportunities for rival unions.

Protests are common in the mining industry, where workers say conditions haven't improved in two decades.

Lonmin said the latest strike, and workers staying away out of fear for their safety, has forced the company stop all but essential mine maintenance. That has led to the loss of 15,000 troy ounces of platinum output, an expected 8.5% increase in unit costs for the year and a risk that the company would miss its full-year production target of 750,000 ounces, Lonmin said.