Miner under fire from NUM

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) at Kimberley Ekapa Mining Joint Venture is “concerned and disturbed” by the manner in which the mine management is allegedly treating workers and victimising its leadership.

This comes after a slew of allegations of racism, suspensions and ill-treatment of union members by mine management.

NUM yesterday said it had tried on several occasions to engage management and even invited the mine’s executive to try and deal with the attitudes of senior managers at the operations in the Northern Cape.

The union said racism was rife within the company and transformation was merely “window-dressing”.

It said a contractor called one of its members a baboon and the company was reluctant to act until the union forced it to suspend the individual.

NUM also alleged one of its shop stewards was suspended for speaking his mother tongue.

“Another burning issue is the ill-treatment of the NUM branch leadership, especially the branch chairperson and secretary. There is an ulterior motive towards the two and management to victimise the comrades,” NUM said.

“The company failed to implement its own recruitment policies, which is a cause for concern and the company is busy recruiting people who don’t have qualifications.”

NUM vowed to fight to bring the perpetrators to book and end the “abhorrent” behaviour. “This company claims that they care about employees but on the contrary, all that they care about is production,” it said.

Kimberley Ekapa Mining representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The company was formed when London Stock Exchange-listed Petra Diamonds entered into a joint venture with South African-based diamond mining company Ekapa Mining in July 2016.

The resultant entity comprises the Kimberley underground mine, numerous tailings retreatment programmes and the central treatment plant.

Another burning issue is the ill-treatment of the NUM branch leadership.

National Union of Mineworkers