MARIKANA, South Africa – Tensions ran high yesterday as thousands of mine workers downed tools at South Africa’s Lonmin mine after a union leader was shot dead in the restive platinum belt.

“No mining is currently taking place at Marikana,” the company told investors, as it scrambled to end the illegal strike.

Work had stopped at all of the firm’s 13 shafts in the north-western Rustenburg mining town, the world’s top platinum-producing region.

Workers belonging to the recently established Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) vowed to continue the strike until a rival union is ejected from the mine.

AMCU members blame the long dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for the shooting death of a senior union colleague over the weekend.

“We won’t go underground until NUM is removed from the mine premises,” AMCU branch secretary Bob Mehlwenkomo told the workers.

“They are killing our members and Lonmin is not doing anything about it.”

After a meeting with mine bosses, Mehlwenkomo said the union had demanded Lonmin beef up security around the mine.

“Tomorrow we are going to report for duty, but we are not going underground,” he said.

The situation is tense, coming less than a year after police shot dead 34 miners during one August day of bloodshed.

Hundreds of miners began gathering from early morning near the hill where their colleagues were killed.

Some of the group chanted and carried sticks and branches within sight of a string of white crosses that serves as a memorial to one of the most bloody incidents of police brutality since the end of apartheid.

A small police contingent stood at a distance. The strike raises the spectre of further violence between rival unions and could be yet another blow to the struggling South African economy.

Lonmin shares plunged over seven per cent around midday on the London Stock Exchange amid the industrial action.

“Peace and returning to normal production in our mining industry is absolutely critical to our economy,” Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said, urging an end to the strike.

“I’m hoping that everybody sits down together and solves their problem as quickly as possible so that normal production can start.”

Tensions between NUM and AMCU, which was formed by ex-NUM officials, heightened last year during the deadly strike in August.

AMCU was recently recognised as the majority union at Lonmin and at neighbouring Anglo American Platinum, dislodging the powerful NUM from the top position.

One miner however said he joined the strike out of fear for his life.

“To be honest I don’t understand what is going on now, I was told that today there is no work and we are expected to gather here,” a miner named Clive told AFP.

“Here you do as you are told, you don’t want to be seen doing the opposite,” he said.

The union unrest has caused several deaths.

An AMCU leader was gunned down on Saturday while he was watching football in a tavern in Rustenburg.

Mawethu Steven was due to testify at a judicial inquiry into last year’s Marikana killings.

Twin brothers were also shot dead Saturday at an informal settlement where some of the Lonmin mine workers live.

NUM claim one of the slain is its representative.

A senior NUM official meanwhile alleged the Lonmin striking workers intimidated its representatives.

“There is intimidation and violence. They are singing and dancing and have blocked roads. Cars are being turned away. Its really bad,” said Mxhasi Sithethi, a regional NUM coordinator.

The latest stoppage comes at the start of South Africa’s so-called strike season when tens of thousands of workers pour onto the streets demanding wage hikes.

The tensions continue in the Rustenburg area, where Anglo American Platinum last week announced 6,000 job cuts in restructuring.

Job losses, union rivalry, and police brutality “could lead to the situation ultimately boiling over,” according to analyst Peter Attard Montalto of Nomura, a Japanese bank.

“We think the market underestimates the structural changes, union dynamic and semi-permanent state of output losses and so ongoing economic impact.”

AFP