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Marikana - If mine bosses think mine workers will return to work based on “simple SMSes”, they are mistaken, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president, Joseph Mathunjwa, told thousands of miners gathered at the Wonderkop stadium in Marikana.
Today’s (Wednesday) gathering came after three people were killed and several others injured in Bapong and Marikana in North West.
City Press quoted the Amcu president as saying that many of the things reported by the media were lies and no one reported when particular Amcu members were killed at the beginning of the strike.
Employers
“We called the media about one of our members who was viciously killed and it didn’t make headlines,” said Mathunjwa, to which the miners responded with murmurs that the media reported lies.
He also said he had warned Lonminthat the SMS campaign to convince the miners to go back to work would be “detrimental”.
“I told the employers that these SMSes would do a lot more harm than anything else. They were warned, but they still went ahead thinking that we would be brought back to work with simple SMSes,” said Mathunjwa.
He has taken platinum producers Amplats, Impala Platinum and Lonmin to court requesting an urgent interdict to stop the mining company from communicating the new wage offer directly to the miners.
Strike
He also took a jab at Lonmin and the government, saying they were “in bed together”.
“The government wants a repeat of what happened in 2012, that’s why they are in bed with the capitalists. People are saying that you have become violent, knowing that there is no such thing. This is merely to bring in the police and kill this strike without paying you a living wage,” he said to cheers.
The miners were bused in from the areas around the platinum belt.
Mathunjwa commented that it seemed as if the strike had just started, looking at the number of miners who had gathered.
Today’s (Wednesday) gathering came after three people were killed and several others injured in Bapong and Marikana in North West.
City Press quoted the Amcu president as saying that many of the things reported by the media were lies and no one reported when particular Amcu members were killed at the beginning of the strike.
Employers
“We called the media about one of our members who was viciously killed and it didn’t make headlines,” said Mathunjwa, to which the miners responded with murmurs that the media reported lies.
He also said he had warned Lonminthat the SMS campaign to convince the miners to go back to work would be “detrimental”.
“I told the employers that these SMSes would do a lot more harm than anything else. They were warned, but they still went ahead thinking that we would be brought back to work with simple SMSes,” said Mathunjwa.
He has taken platinum producers Amplats, Impala Platinum and Lonmin to court requesting an urgent interdict to stop the mining company from communicating the new wage offer directly to the miners.
Strike
He also took a jab at Lonmin and the government, saying they were “in bed together”.
“The government wants a repeat of what happened in 2012, that’s why they are in bed with the capitalists. People are saying that you have become violent, knowing that there is no such thing. This is merely to bring in the police and kill this strike without paying you a living wage,” he said to cheers.
The miners were bused in from the areas around the platinum belt.
Mathunjwa commented that it seemed as if the strike had just started, looking at the number of miners who had gathered.
