In photo, miners congretaed at Blesbok stadium, saying they have refused to accept their dismissal by Anglo American Platinum, the world's largest primary producer of platinum, accounting for about 38% of the world's annual supply. [MORE] From [HERE] and [HERE] The National Union of Mineworkers accused Anglo American Platinum Monday of “racism” as the impasse between striking miners and the world’s top platinum producer escalated.

The NUM alleged that its leader in Rustenburg, the scene of a wildcat strike that brought Amplats’ operations to a halt, was called derogatory names by the company’s security officials at its Swartklip Union mine in Limpopo province. The official was racially abused Monday together with a journalist for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the union charged in a statement.

The union’s attempts to intercede on behalf of miners fired last week by Amplats had been thwarted, said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka. “It has become very clear that the company promotes racism through procuring security and other services from racists and their companies and that it has no intention to empower African people,” Seshoka said. “The company has a week ago embarked on mass dismissals and was in the process of doing the same at Swartklip when the NUM leaders sought to intervene and speak to members only to be met with imported racism of a special type.”

Mpumi Sithole, a spokeswoman for Amplats, declined to comment on this matter.

Amplats, a subsidiary of the London-listed Anglo Platinum, last week dismissed 12,000 striking miners for staging a wildcat strike and later failing to attend disciplinary hearings. The mineworkers have since threatened to make the mines ungovernable, saying it will be impossible for the company to hire new workers.

The miners are determined to fight for their jobs, said strike leader Evans Ramokga Monday.

About 80,000 miners, or 16 percent of South Africa’s total mine workforce, are currently on strike across South Africa in work stoppages that have serious economic implications for South Africa. The labor unrest is damaging the country’s reputation as an investment destination, say economists. South Africa produces 75 percent of the world’s platinum and is the No. 4 chrome producer and the fifth-biggest gold producer.

There seems to be no end in sight to the turmoil, which originated in the platinum sector and has since spread to gold, coal and iron ore mines as well as to the road freight sector. Some 20,000 truckers demanding a 22 percent pay raise are currently staging a strike that threatens the supply of gas and groceries. The striking truckers now say they might intensify their campaign by inviting rail and port workers if employers do not meet their wage demands.

From the AAP's perspective the strike is unprotected and illegal, so mine owners are well within their rights to fire the workers involved.

"It's within their legal right because the strike is unprotected; it didn’t follow the procedure [for declaring a strike] set out in the Labour Relations Act," said Adcorp labour analyst Loane Sharp.

Sharp said that from the mine’s perspective, firing the workers would also make business sense.

"If you are going to retrench workers anyway, it's cheaper to dismiss them when you have the opportunity because you don't have to pay severance packages. If you retrench them you have to pay them a week of salary for every completed year of service," he said.

Benefits reset
Sharp said even if Amplats rehired the miners it would be bad for workers as all the long-term benefits they’d accrued over the years would "reset".

"All of the benefits that are linked to length of service, like pension funds or share options, resets to zero," he said.

Sharp said he believes it's unlikely Amplats will rehire all 12 000 miners. "I would be surprised if Amplats hires back more than 9 000 people. They might only rehire only 7 000," he said.

Last week Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi backed striking workers, saying that the trade union federation, would seek better wages for mine workers in all sectors. He blamed mine bosses for the unrest, in particular Impala Platinum, which has given pay hikes in response to two wildcat strikes this year.

But Peter Major, mining specialist at Cadiz Corporate Solutions, said the trend towards giving in to demands made outside of formal structures is nothing new.

"Some people said it was Impala [Platinum] seven months ago or Lonmin a month ago, and said you guys went and signed something outside the auspices of a union, signed an agreement that went and abrogated a previous agreement. Which is true," he said.

But these decisions were merely indicative of a trend that began almost 10 years ago. Major said that mines now realise that giving in to such demands merely reinforce a new and bad principle of operating outside of established structures.

'Line in the sand'
By firing 12 000 workers, Amplats had drawn a line in the sand, something no one else has quite managed to do these past 10 years," he said.

"They [Amplats] have given the guys every legal means to come back to work, and honour the agreement. Now they're firing [workers] and doing a reappraisal of their work."

Major said that if mines like Amplats were going to act against illegal, violent strikes, now is the time.

"Anglo realised they should have drawn a line in the sand a long time ago and they realise now is the time to do it because government is more on their side, and the side of 'what's right', than ever before. This is because of 50 dead bodies [at Lonmin], huge and ongoing bad international press, government’s increasingly worse finances, and the huge, ongoing and increasing wildcat strike contagion now enveloping all of South Africa," he said.

"It's worked in Anglo's favour to try to confront this and resolve it, to turn this horrible trend around where people can arbitrarily abrogate an agreement that was signed in good faith, and then go on an intimidatory, destructive rampage" he said.

In a statement released on Monday, Cosatu condemned Amplats dismissal of the workers and called on the employers to reinstate all the workers and call the unions to discuss the workers' demands.

The trade union federation also called on workers involved in the unprotected strike to reconsider and suspend the strike, "to allow the negotiations to start and allow the federation to lead their demand for proper disputes and take a protected action, which will not dismiss anyone".

Cosatu to meet miners
"Cosatu support the demands of the workers but we are not supporting illegal actions, and the continuation of killing each other," it said.

Cosatu is also set to meet miners from the Bokoni Platinum Mine, which is considering dismissing almost 2 000 workers, on Monday.

Many of the affected miners have refused to accept their dismissal, saying they still regard themselves as employees of the mine and will continue with the strike until their demands are met.

The dismissal came just a day after ANC officials met with the Chamber of Mines to discuss developments in the mining sector. Last week members of the ANC also met with the South African Communist Party and senior leaders from Cosatu and the National Union of Mineworkers.

The parties agreed that unlawful strikes would have a negative impact on workers and the economy and that deviating from the collective bargaining system and from collective agreements was dangerous and could lead to further wildcat strikes.