A man was killed Thursday morning during a protest held by striking platinum miners at a facility operated by the world’s largest producer of the precious metal. Another man, who was shot, is in critical condition.
“About 400 mineworkers gathered at the informal settlement around 6 a.m., and a man was shot and wounded. He was airlifted to hospital,” police Captain Dennis Adriao told the South African Press Association (SAPA).
He added that another man was burned to death and a taxi was torched at the Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) mine in Rustenburg, according to SAPA. At least forty people were arrested for the violence, Adriao said. The striking mine workers believed the taxi was carrying replacement workers to the mine.
Amplats, the world’s largest platinum producer, fired 12,000 workers last Friday due to weeks of strikes and the situation in Rustenburg has become more tense, according to The Associated Press.
Evans Ramokga, a leader of the strike, told AP that only “over our dead bodies” would Amplats be able to hire new workers to replace the ones who were fired.
But another miner spokesman, Gaddafhi Mdoda, told SAPA that miners condemn the violence. “We do not know who is behind this. The violence is getting out of hand,” he said.
“We cannot afford to have more enemies, we already have enemies–the government, mine management, and the National Union of Mineworkers–we cannot afford to have our brothers and sisters as enemies,” he said.
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