Publications
Partners
"We will break the deadlock. I can say there has been movement on both sides," Ramatlhodi told Reuters.
He said a "political intervention is necessary" after several rounds of negotiations failed.
"The country can't afford ... business as usual," he said.
Ramatlhodi appointed a government team to try and resolve the wage stoppage by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) at the world's top platinum producers.Ramatlhodi said the teams was established after he met union representatives, chief executives of Impala Platinum (Implats) [JSE:IMP], Lonmin [JSE:LON] and Anglo Platinum (Amplats) [JSE:AMS] and the Chamber of Mines on Wednesday.
"The mandate of the technical team is to broaden the approach and explore all possibilities for a resolution to the problem," he said in a statement, according to Sapa.
The technical team would meet at an undisclosed location on Thursday.
"They will interrogate all the information (including the figures) provided by both parties, and report back by the end of the day on what is possible."
The team was made up of officials from the departments of mineral resources, labour and the National Treasury, who would be supported by representatives from the mining companies and Amcu.
Amcu members have been on strike at Implat, Lonmin and Amplat since January 23.They are demanding a basic salary of R12 500 per month, and rejected an offer by the companies that would bring their pay to R12 500 by 2017.
Labour Court-facilitated talks aimed at resolving the more than four-month-old wage strike were held in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Ramatlhodi told Reuters in an interview that his other priorities included a possible review of the country's "mining charter", which imposes a number of targets on the industry, including one that calls for 26% black ownership by 2014.
