Platinum miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) says it will create other job opportunities following its announcement earlier this week that the jobs of up to 14 000 mineworkers are in jeopardy as a result of the losses it suffered last year.
This is according to a spokesperson for North West Premier Thandi Modise, whose provincial government has asked Amplats to let all stakeholders have a discussion about its plans concerning the fate of the 14 000 mineworkers.
Modise's spokesperson Lesiba Kgwele told SABC News: "There is a proposal by Amplats to make sure those jobs that are lost, they make up for those particular job losses (sic). So, the provincial government wouldn't want to comment on the process, except to say that they would also, as part of the stakeholder (process), make their particular input within the 90-day period that Amplats expects to complete its consultation process. So, we are confident as the provincial government that everybody will take this opportunity to make their inputs."
Meanwhile, there have been calls for the national government to take over and manage the mines that Amplats plans to close down, or to nationalise them and put them under control of the state mining company. But the ANC has rejected this as part of its decision not to follow the 'wholesale' nationalisation route; it may review licences granted to mining groups instead.
The announcement by Amplats earlier this week, misinterpreted by some newspapers, has been widely condenmed by all sectors.
The latest is the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which says it will not stay quiet about the proposed job losses at the Amplats mine in North West. The SACC's Archbishop Thabo Makgoba says this cannot be allowed to happen in a democratic South Africa.
He was addressing the media in Johannesburg, following a meeting the SACC had with the Wits University Business School, where they discussed political and socio-economic challenges currently facing the country.
"Socio-economic issues of the day touch at the core of what our sacred texts are about – the sanctity of the human being as created in the image of God. And if they are retrenched, they are alienating them from that which God has said is sacred, and we cannot keep quiet as the Church," Makgoba said.
