Johannesburg - Tens of thousands of mineworkers downed tools in South Africa on Tuesday in a one-day strike over safety standards, accusing their bosses of putting lives at risk for the sake of profits.
In the first stoppage by the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) since the end of apartheid, production was affected at mines nationwide with some owners saying only a small percentage of the normal workforce had reported for duty.
Many of the stayaway workers gathered for rallies organised by the Num as part of the drive to cut the level of injuries and fatalities in South Africa's mines, where around 200 people die every year.
"We are dying in mines but we get nothing. We want change, we want to work safe," said 26-year-old Thembisile Marrent, an employee at the Kloof goldmine in northern Mpumalanga province, at a rally in downtown Johannesburg.
"When you get accidents the boss wants to know how it happened, if you made a mistake or if it was bad luck. If the mistake is yours, they charge you (with disciplinary offences) even though you are in hospital."
Many of the protesters in Johannesburg carried banners saying the owners of the country's 700 mines were "dripping in blood" as they pursued profit at the expense of safety.
"They put people down the mines, whatever the danger," said Toko Molale, who has been working at a platinum mine for the last 13 years.
"Things have improved a bit but they are still pushing production more than safety."
'Not a normal environment'
Num secretary general Frans Baleni told AFP mining was "not a normal environment, yet the wages are very very low. Safety is compromised because the workers are trying to get bonuses".
Addressing the crowd, Baleni called for negligent mine bosses to be prosecuted.
"We are not here for a wage increase but to raise the fact that we are dying underground," he said.
Reint Dykema, spokesperson for the union Solidarity, said its 15 000 members were not joining the strike but "absolutely support the Num strike morally".
South Africa's Chamber of Mines has acknowledged that much needs to be done to improve safety but insists there is no complacency within the industry.
Its chief executive Zoli Diliza set out plans in October to reduce fatality rates by at least 20 percent by 2013, acknowledging South Africa's record fell way short of other mining giants such as Australia, Canada and United States.
A spokesperson for Anglo American, the country's biggest mining house which operates coal, gold, diamonds and platinum mines, insisted safety was the number one priority.
"A comprehensive set of safety standards and initiatives has been designed and implemented," Pranill Ramchanger told AFP.
He said the company had yet to make a full assessment of the impact on production but there had been a big response to the strike call.
Strike action could be intensified
"The impact in terms of coal has been a 65% absentee rate," he said.
Goldfields, another of the country's biggest mining firms, reported up to 75% absence at one of its mines.
"We have just got early estimates that just under 70% of our employees at our four South African operations did not report for work today," said spokesperson Andrew Davidson.
"The largest stayaway is at our Kloof mine where up to 75% of the employees did not report for the morning shift. Obviously this will affect our production."
Union chiefs have said strike action could be intensified if employers do not make significant inroads into the levels of mining fatalities.
Concerns over safety reached a new peak in early October when some 3 200 miners were stuck underground in a gold mine southwest of Johannesburg for more than 24 hours after a lift cable snapped.
The incident led President Thabo Mbeki to order a security audit of the mines in the country.
Mining, which generated R195bn in local sales last year, is the largest foreign exchange earner for South Africa and brought in a total of R355bn from exports.