The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said that about 230 mine workers at Blyvoor who went underground for the morning shift on Wednesday refused to come to the surface. The union said their main grievance is that they want to join the NUM at a mine with a closed-shop agreement with an in-hou.
Swart was reportedly shot dead while driving to work shortly before 7am, according to a local newspaper, the
Zululand Observer. It reported police had confirmed the incident and that more than 20 high-calibre bullets had been fired into his vehicle. The attack has all the hallmarks of a planned hit. Read here.
Rio Tinto did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but
MiningMX, a news site focused on the industry, quoted the company as saying: “The circumstances of the shooting are unknown at this stage and the incident is being investigated by the South African Police Services (SAPS).”
RBM mostly produces titanium dioxide slag, used in the production of a range of industrial items from paint to toothpaste. Rio Tinto halted work on a $463-million project at RMB in 2019 because of community protests. The company told Bloomberg in April it did not know when work would resume because of security issues. Read here.
A Blyvoor Gold source said about 60% of the workforce has returned after about seven weeks of disruption followed the murder of company director and Blyvoor Workers’ Union (BWU) leader Wels Sempe.
Located near Carletonville, Blyvoor went into liquidation after it was crippled by a violent wildcat strike in 2012. Over R1-billion in investment, most of it foreign, has been raised in recent years to get the mine back on its feet. But union rivalry brought it to a standstill in March.
“The police were failing to follow an interdict instructing them to arrest people causing disturbances on mine property, so we got another high court order and then the police arrested a few of the perpetrators,” a company source told
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