South African mine owner sacks 12,000 workers

Officials at the Anglo American Platinum mine in South Africa have announced that they will dismiss 12,000 out of 21,000 striking miners they say are engaging in an "illegal strike".

The world's largest platinum producer said on Friday the 12,000 dismissed workers failed to turn up to disciplinary hearings which began on Tuesday.

They will have three working days to appeal.

Amplats said three weeks of illegal strikes by 28,000 workers in Rustenburg had cost it 700m rand (€61 million) in revenue.

South African mining has been hit by a wave of wildcat strikes in which miners and officials have been killed.

Thirty-four platinum miners were shot dead by police on 16 August.

A separate strike is continuing at another mining firm, GoldFields, which is the world's fourth-largest gold miner.

On Tuesday, GoldFields evicted 5,000 striking employees from company dormitories, saying they were intimidating fellow workers.

In all, about 75,000 miners are currently on strike in the gold and platinum sectors, most of them illegally, analysts say.

Anglo American, located in North West province, had been threatening the strikers with dismissal for a week now via text messages to its workers.

The sackings were the first such actions by all of the mines where illegal strikes have taken place.

The announcement came on a day a branch leader of the nation's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was shot dead near a mine run by fellow platinum producer Lonmin in nearby Marikana.

Neither police nor mine owners commented on the claim.

Police backed by armoured vehicles and a helicopter dispersed the striking miners as they attempted to gather on a hillsideclose to their informal settlement in Rustenburg
after a night of clashes with  authorities.

The demonstrations have now spread to seven of the nation's nine provinces.

Over 75,000 South African miners workers, who amount for 15 per cent of the nation's work force, are on strike.

The walkouts began four weeks ago when 15,000 miners walked off the job at the world's fourth largest gold producer, Gold Fields.

In August, police shot and killed 46 workers at the Lonmin mine. The strikes then spread to coal, diamond, chrome and iron mines.

For two weeks now, 20,000 lorry drivers have also gone on strike, leaving several petrol stations without fuel and automated teller machines without cash.

The drivers have called on their colleagues in South Africa's ports to join in their protest starting next week.