The history of mine labor in
the Republic of South Africa

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Working-class history in general of the Republic of South Africa

Ceremony to commemorate the deaths of South African workers at Vametco, a US-owned mine in South Africa!

From the South African Exchange Program on Environmental Justice, 18 November 1995. Coalition members from New England are organizing a wreath laying ceremony which is scheduled on the same day as the wreath laying ceremony at the mine gates in South Africa to commemorate the deaths of former workers at Vametco, a US-owned mine.

Miners on strike at South African gold mine

AFP, 26 March 1996. Some 2,000 miners went on strike Tuesday at a gold mine near in Free State province to protest the sacking of 259 rock-drill operators after an illegal strike at the Unisel mine near Welkom. Despite talks and meetings with the rock-drill operators' committee on the mine and with National Union of Mineworkers officials, the strikers refused to resume drilling and were served with dismissal notices.

Strike by 11 000 halts gold mining

IOL - Reuters, 22 March 2000. A one-day strike at Free State gold mines to protest against job losses and poverty. Gold Fields, the world's second largest gold producer, said mining operations at its Beatrix, St Helena and Oryx mines had effectively ground to a halt after 11,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) failed to show up for work.

Mineworkers' Union (MWU) protests to Eskom over affirmative action

Sapa, 8 June 2000. The predominantly white-Afrikaans Mineworkers' Union is to hand over a memorandum on Friday to Eskom, protesting against the parastatal's affirmative action programme. Last week, on the deadline for companies with more than 150 employees to submit their proposals on implementing the Employment Equity Act, the MWU sent a memorandum to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana urging the minister to ensure that affirmative action did not lead to "new forms of injustices".

NUM to hold rally over inflation-related wage offer

Sapa, 12 July 2000. The National Union of Mineworkers is to hold a rally after rejecting a Chamber of Mines offer to extend an agreement on inflation-related wage increases for colliery workers by a year, in exchange for a six percent wage increase this year. This is an attempt to push the union to sell its dignity for peanuts.