Friday, 19th May 2006 (1311 views)

The main labour union in South Africa carried out a strike yesterday (May 19th), which affected the operations of Harmony Gold Mining.

The one-day strike was called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which urged miners and other workers to stay away from work to highlight what it claims is the government's inability to cut poverty and create jobs.

COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told the national broadcaster SABC that "South Africa is a middle income country, but remains one of the highest countries in terms of unemployment".

Philip Kotze, Harmony Gold's investor relations executive, said: "We probably have about half of our operations where people didn't come out this morning, but it's also fairly early, so we're not too sure what percentage of the total labour force is represented."

Harmony Gold is the fifth-biggest gold producer in the world and has around 45,000 employees in total.

Gold Fields, the world's fourth-largest gold producer, was also affected by the industrial action. Around 75 per cent of its workers at the Beatrix mine were absent, as well as around 65 per cent at the Kloof mine.

 

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