No end in sight for strike at Sibanye’s Cooke unit

A wildcat strike at Sibanye Gold’s Cooke operations that started on Tuesday against the mine’s policy to stop illegal mining, continued on Sunday with no end in sight.

The strike started after the mine forbade food being taken underground by staff after it was found that this was being supplied to illegal miners.

Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted said that production had stopped at the mine and 138 illegal miners had come up from underground operations since the strike started.

The mine employed 4,000 people, 3,800 of whom worked underground, he said.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had an agreement that it would support the food ban so their members were not striking but, there was a high level of intimidation, Wellsted said.

It was said that 16 workers trying to get to work had been assaulted since the strike started. NUM confirmed that it had signed the agreement and would be reviewing it every 20 days during the 90day implementation.

The Labour Court declared the strike unprotected on Thursday and Sibanye was in the process of implementing disciplinary processes that could include dismissal, Wellsted said.

“Those shafts have not been operating well and have been under scrutiny from us and could face potential closure and part of it is due to illegal mining because you have illegal miners in there affecting the workplace,” he said.

Sibanye has made a commitment to clear all illegal miners from its shafts by January 2018.

Initially, Sibanye had tried to restrict the food being taken underground, but the workers continued to give surplus food to the miners.

Sibanye estimated that about 100 illegal miners were still underground, Wellsted said.