The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has called for the resignation of Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman, amid the company’s process of retrenching nearly 4 000 workers from its South African gold mining operations, saying he and his executive have been “arrogant and brutal" in laying off employees.
NUM members on Saturday marched to Sibanye-Stillwater offices in Libanon, on the West Rand, calling on the company to halt its Section 189 process to retrench 3 900 gold sector employees.
The mineworkers union also gave Sibanye-Stillwater a two weeks ultimatum to address and respond to employee demands for a halt to the retrenchments.
“We demand Sibanye-Stillwater to respect the country’s labour laws. We demand proper health and safety measures for workers underground,” NUM said in its demands to the company.
The NUM is also demanding that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy “take immediate action” against Sibanye-Stillwater.
NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu told “Business Report” in an interview at the weekend that Sibanye-Stillwater’s Section 189 processes for the gold sector had angered mining-sector employees.
“The decision to retrench the 4 000 workers angered our members and our members decided that they were going to express their anger against the company through the march to Sibanye-Stillwater offices,” Mammburu said by phone.
“We don’t want them to go on with the retrenchments, that is why we engaged in the strike.”
Sibanye-Stillwater insists that costs for its SA gold operations will reduce further in the next few months as the company completes the closure of the Kloof 4 shaft.
“Costs are expected to reduce as the Kloof 4 shaft closure process is completed during Q2 2024. Project capital declined from R31 million ($2 million) in Q1 2023 to zero in Q1 2024 as a result of the closure of Kloof 4 shaft and termination of the Kloof 4 shaft deepening project,” the company said on Friday.
The closure of the Kloof 4 Shaft had yielded a 46% lowering in sustaining capital during the quarter period to the end of March 2024.
Mammburu said the NUM was calling for the resignation of Froneman and the Sibanye-Stillwater executive, adding that the company’s CEO has been “brutal” in addition to refusing to consider the plight of employees who were being retrenched.
“We are calling for Neal Froneman and the executive to resign because they have failed to run this company and they are focusing on higher salaries for themselves and retrenchments for workers,” he said.
“Sibanye is retrenching when the gold price is very high. We don’t understand why they are retrenching in gold sector at a time when gold companies are making profits.”
Sibanye-Stillwater has been retrenching across its South African operations, having already announced lay-offs from its PGM operations.
On Friday, Froneman, who has been under fire from labour unions over the retrenchments, said benefits of capital preservation strategies undertaken by the company in 2023 and during the first quarter of 2024 - including the retrenchments - were “expected to manifest in a phased manner over an extended period” for the South African PGM operations.
“We are confident that the restructuring that has taken place to date, at the SA operations as well as the current regional restructuring, will secure a lower cost structure for the SA region, despite the phased closure cost and initial disruption which has impacted Q1 2024,” Froneman said.
Cosatu, whose president and secretary general Zingiswa Losi and Solly Phetoe, respectively, attended the NUM march to Sibanye-Stillwater offices on Saturday said it was concerned about the jobs bloodbath in the mining sector.
Mathew Parks, spokesperson for Cosatu told “Business Report” in an interview yesterday: “Cosatu is deeply concerned about the number of pending retrenchments in the mining sector.
“We expect Sibanye-Stillwater to respond to workers’ demands as a matter of urgency.”
BUSINESS REPORT