Lanxess mineworkers call for Mantashe’s intervention

Mineworkers at the Lanxess Chrome Mine in Rustenburg, North West, are calling for intervention of Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe in their dispute with management.

More than 150 striking workers have been staging an underground sit-in for almost four weeks.

They’re demanding better wages and for the mine to probe allegations of corruption and maladministration against some managers.

In the video below, Lanxess Chrome Mine employees stage underground sit-in:

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Clashes have taken place between the mineworkers and mine security personnel. The mineworkers had forced entry onto the mine premises in what they say was an attempt to provide food for their striking colleagues underground.

Their leader Pule Majelenyane says they are waiting for Mantashe as they have done everything that they could.

“We are waiting for Mantashe, the minister, to come here because we have done everything that is possible. We talked to the Germans we have engaged them a lot but they are not coming on board. So now we are tired of those Germans now we are saying to Mantashe he must come here in Rustenburg and give this mine to the workers, we don’t want the Germans anymore.”

The SABC News team managed to manoeuvre their way in through to the shaft and spoke to a 34-year-old Kgaratji Tselana, who is among those still underground. Tselana says they have not been getting food for 11 days while underground.

“For the past 27 days that we have been underground, for the past 11 days we’ve not been getting food. The only thing that we have been getting from management is this small packet of phakamisa. They give us two per day and when we eat it, it cramps your stomach and makes you to have an appetite and it is killing us underground. The condition underground is bad and normally sometimes management switches off electricity, and the ventilation and lights and warm water for us to wash. We cannot wash with warm water we use cold water to wash ourselves.”

In the video below, NUMSA says that Lanxess Chrome Mine workers staging underground sit-in have been poorly fed.

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)