COSATU statement on the Impala Platinum’s planned retrenchments

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is deeply alarmed by the reports that Impala Platinum has decided to retrench 13 000 mineworkers over a period of two years in Rustenburg. What makes the situation worse is the fact that the company did not even have the decency to inform workers beforehand but decided to communicate this message to the media. We totally agree with the Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe that this is pure arrogance by the management of Impala.

The scheming and rapacious mining bosses have dragged the mining industry down the drain because of their mismanagement, short-sightedness and narrow focus on their profits. The current crisis in the mining sector is a crisis of profits by the mining companies.

The ongoing job losses in the mining industry have exposed the state’s failure to restructure the mining industry and the national economy at large. These rapacious mining companies are driven by nothing except their selfishness, greed and their exploitative attitudes are abominable.

They do not care about the economy nor value the lives of black workers and black people in general.

COSATU demands that government forces the mining industry to put a moratorium on these retrenchments until the job summit has been convened and also put money aside to do an industry wide training and retraining scheme that will help miners to posses’ useful skills rather than simply being dumped in the unemployment line.

Statement issued by Sizwe Pamla, Cosatu National Spokesperson, 3 August 2018