Workers at Royal Bafokeng platinum mine follow lead of strikers at nearby Lonmin site where 44 human beings have died in clashesUnrest among South Africa’s platinum miners is spreading, after strikes at a Lonmin mine at the end week erupted into violence leaving 44 dead.About 500 workers at the nearby Royal Bafokeng platinum mine downed tools on Wednesday and blocked fellow miners from going to employment.Anglo American Platinum, which is 80%-owned by London-listed Anglo American, has also received a list of demands from a collection of workers in South Africa, however the corporation insisted they were not threatening strike action.Managers from Lonmin met workers’ representatives on Tuesday night for the first age since 34 Marikana mine strikers were shot by police. Ten other human beings, including two police officers, died in violence earlier at the end week.The 3,000 striking rock drillers are demanding that their wages be trebled from 4,000 rand (£304) a month to 12,500 rand a month, and desire the release of the 259 human beings arrested after the police crackdown at the end Thursday.Anglican Bishop Johannes Seoka, who was chairing the talks on Tuesday, told AFP: “All we inquiry management is to please allow workers to give them their demands, to listen to them and to engage with them since the workers have been asking just to talk. If they had talked earlier on, the massacre would have been avoided.”A spokesman for Lonmin said the talks were not a wage negotiation, however rather “a private analysis about how to get employees back to employment”.South African president Jacob Zuma has entered the debate, telling workers on Wednesday that he would speak to Lonmin about their wage demands.The Lonmin workers’ demands have been echoed by rock drillers at Royal Bafokeng, who have halted employment at the nearby Rasimone platinum mine. The corporation said it was “making every effort to know the reasons for and to resolve this action”.Anglo American Platinum played down the demands it has received from workers, saying it was “a honestly regular occurrence”.A spokesman said: “This was not a union demand or request, this was a collection of workers who made a administer request to the mine’s management.”However commentators suggest this is a major difficulty facing the mining industry.Lawrence Williams of mining blog Mineweb wrote: “What is particularly worrying here is that the miners are bypassing the National Union of Mineworkers suggesting a total lack of trust in the traditional mining union setup.”LonminAnglo AmericanMiningSouth AfricaJacob ZumaAfricaJosephine Mouldsguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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