Pretoria - Impala Platinum (Implats) mineworkers have downed
tools in protest over the arrest of their colleagues and leaders
implicated in last week's clashes between rival unions, an official said
on Tuesday.
Implats spokesperson Alice Lourens said since Monday
evening the workers at the mine near Rustenburg "refused to proceed
underground when they heard some of their colleagues had been arrested".
Police investigating last week's skirmishes arrested
the alleged perpetrators of the violence. They belong to the Association
of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), Lourens said.
Last week police intervened at the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange-listed company after workers affiliated to the National Union
of Mineworkers (Num) and the rival AMCU clashed at two different
locations on the mine property.
At the time North West police spokesperson Brigadier
Thulane Ngubane said several Implats workers belonging to AMCU attacked
their Num colleagues outside a hostel before they left for work.
Two Nu workers ran and hid. Another was shot in the
head and collapsed on the road outside the hostel. He was taken to the
Impala mine hospital.
"It is alleged that the dispute between the two labour
unions' members... is being influenced by the fact that AMCU has now
recruited more members since... the Implats strike," he said.
"The AMCU members are allegedly outnumbering those of
Num and they forcefully want Num members to vacate the... number 14
shaft," Ngubane said.
Implats fired 17 200 workers after they refused to
return to work in February, despite a court interdict declaring a strike
they embarked on in January illegal.
Three people were killed in incidents linked to
intimidation and violence involving the dismissed workers, while scores
were injured and more than 100 were arrested for public violence.