Striking miners urge to return to work


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A called has been made by South African president Jacob Zuma for mine workers to return to their various jobs after a series of vicious strikes.
Mr Zuma has called on all the mining production and business leaders to regularize and take a year-long salary freeze following the five hours meeting with the union and business leaders.

Mr Zuma in a statement says that these strikes have no role in the South African system and simply have a negative effect thus they have agreed that violence and intimidation must come to an end. He also called on executives to freeze salaries and bonuses for the next year showing a strong obligation to build an equitable economy and to address income inequality. The agreement to a freeze in increases in salary and bonuses will have to be done over the next 12 months.

According to Dawie Roodt, chief economist with the South African financial services company Efficient Group, South Africa’s income distribution is extremely twisted. He explains that when looking at the Gini coefficient which refers’s to a measure of income inequality, South Africa’s income distribution is of the worst in the world. Additional he said, at least 25% of South Africans were unemployed and by some definitions as much as 40%.He reveals that the executives are very well paid while then low-level workers are usually paid part of what their bosses get.
South African mining has been hit by a succession of strikes in which miners and officials have been killed. Analysts say that about 75,000 miners are currently on strike in the gold and platinum sectors, in which most of them are illegal. Last week 12,000 striking workers have been fired by the Anglo American Platinum (Amplat) which is the world’s biggest platinum producer.

On the other hand, Gold Fields being the world’s fourth- largest gold mine sack 15,000 if they do not return to work by 14:00 local time on Thursday.The striking miners have received global attention when police killed 34 striking workers at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana in August. A judicial commission of inquiry has set up by Mr Zuma to look into the killings of workers at the Marikana mine. The investigation will determine the roles played by the police, the management of the platinum mine, Lonmin, the unions and government.

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