Implats has become the latest South African mining company to be hit by a sit-in underground involving thousands of miners — effectively, a wildcat strike. It is also the latest blow to Implats, which is still reeling from the November disaster at its Rustenburg operations in which 13 miners were killed when a conveyance cage plunged to the bottom of a shaft. 

“Implats is closely monitoring an illegal underground protest, which began this morning, Monday, 18 December 2023, at both North and South shafts at the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine at the group’s Impala Bafokeng operation in the North West province. 

“Management has proactively suspended mining operations at the two shafts and recalled all employees from the underground working areas,” Implats said in a statement. 

Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine is one of the assets Implats recently acquired from Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) — operations that for years have enjoyed stable labour relations with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the majority union. 

“Impala Bafokeng has notified the relevant authorities and mobilised emergency measures to safeguard the health and safety of all who may be participating voluntarily, or who may have been forced to remain underground against their will,” Implats said. 

It said the strikers’ demands remained unclear — as late on Monday, none had been delivered or issued — nor was it clear whether miners were being coerced to remain underground. 

The NUM also said it was in the dark on this front. 

“We don’t know what the demands are,” NUM’s Rustenburg regional secretary, Geoffrey Moatshe, told Daily Maverick. 

The unfolding situation at the Bafokeng Rasimone mine is the latest wildcat strike/sit-in drama to hit a South African mining operation recently, a worrying trend that points to a potential resurgence of labour unrest that could shatter years of relative tranquillity. 

The Gold One mine east of Johannesburg was the scene of two such protests which lasted for several days in October and earlier this month. In the October incident, the NUM accused the rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) of holding its members hostage underground. 

The tensions stemmed from NUM’s closed-shop agreement — which excludes minority unions from the bargaining process — an agreement that NUM has since terminated. NUM has a similar agreement at Bafokeng Rasimone.

Read more in Daily Maverick:  Gold One miners resurface after more than three days underground after second hostage drama 

NUM members recently staged a sit-in at the Wesizwe Platinum operation in North West. This came after the mine signalled its intention of laying off more than 500 workers, and then subsequently advertised for management posts, angering the rank and file. There was also a similar protest at the troubled Blyvoor gold mine west of Johannesburg.

“Illegal underground protests and copycat illegal actions at mining operations in South Africa have become more prevalent in recent months and are a cause for both considerable concern for and disruption to the broader mining industry,” Implats said. 

“These coordinated protest actions pose serious safety concerns for our employees, not just due to the provision of basic nutrition, hydration and ablution facilities, but also the risk to personal safety should the protest action escalate into hostage situations or result in physical violence.”

It’s disconcerting to note that Gold One — the operation where this spate of incidents appears to have first flared — involved a falling-out between Amcu and NUM, whose enmity had rocked the mining sector for almost a decade with often violent wildcat strikes. NUM often accused Amcu of using intimidation and coercion to poach its members and keep them in line, allegations Amcu denied.

The burying of the hatchet between the two archrivals over the past couple of years has seen numerous multiyear wage agreements reached in the gold and platinum sectors without a tool being downed, removing a significant risk to investment in South Africa’s mining industry.

The risk of labour unrest is on the boil again at a time when gold prices are near historic highs — a potential red rag for unions — but those for platinum group metals (PGMs) are collapsing, with job cuts looming as a result. 

Pointedly, Bafokeng Rasimone is the worst-performing mine in Implats’ new stable and because of capital expenditure, it is burning cash. DM