2023-10-25 17:13:18
The approximately 500 South African miners who remained underground since Monday, following a conflict between unions, all came to the surface on Wednesday, police announced, and four injured were being treated.
The origins and circumstances of this affair remain obscure: the management of the Gold One gold mine and one of the two unions involved, the NUM, claim that these hundreds of miners were “held hostage”, when the other union , the AMCU, denied and spoke of a voluntary “sit-in” protest.
Around a hundred workers from this mine, located in the suburbs of Johannesburg, returned on Wednesday morning and the others followed in the afternoon, said a police spokesperson, Brenda Muridili, in a press release.
She said the first to come out said they had been “held against their will” underground. An investigation will be opened for assault and kidnapping.
In all, 562 people, mostly minors, but also a security guard and paramedics, were evacuated.
The conflict between the NUM and the AMCU concerns union representation in this gold mine where only the former, the largest miners’ union in the country, is so far officially registered.
Miners gathered at the entrance to the Gold One mine in Springs, October 25, 2023 in South Africa
AFP
AMCU says an overwhelming majority of miners have signed up to join its union but do not yet have official representation, and that this has sparked the social movement.
The NUM was founded in 1982 by President Cyril Ramaphosa, a former trade unionist.
Under apartheid, trade unionism was the only legal way for many to engage in politics. Unions remain powerful in the country.
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