NUM is holding a memorial service today for the seven miners who lost their lives at the Sibanye Stillwater mine in Driefontein last week.
On Thursday, 10 May 2018, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) along with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and other COSATU affiliates will be picketing outside the Chamber of Mines headquarters in Johannesburg.
The union says the picket is to demand that action be taken to curb the high number of fatalities in the country’s mining industry.
NUM Spokesperson, Livhuwani Mammburu told Political Analysis South Africa on 10 May that the deteriorating health and safety conditions for workers in the mining industry are highly concerning.
“We are angered about these fatalities as the National Union of Mineworkers and that is why we are embarking on a picket as a way to highlight our concerns,” he said.
Mammburu said that he was unsure of the number of union members who are going to join the picket, but said that they expect mineworkers from the Free State to also embark on the picket with them.
He also cautioned mining bosses and the mining sector, saying “this is the start of a bigger campaign that we are going to embark on to highlight issues of health and safety in the mining industry in South Africa because we want to see a situation where there’s zero harm and zero deaths in the mines.”
