Cele, Mantashe attempt to resolve Sibanye impasse
Police Minister Bheki Cele and his mineral resources counterpart Gwede Mantashe are engaged in meetings with mineworker unions NUM and Amcu over the ongoing violence at Sibanye Stillwater on the West Rand.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has been on strike at Sibanye for the past three months.
Cele says the meeting will look at ways to curb the violence at the mine.
“The meeting comes from a request that was made to the police on 6 March, to say we must invite all the other ministers for the issues here. The main one is the violence that police are here for. But we believe that other departments can play very crucial roles.”
At least nine people have died since the strike began last year in November, with 62 houses reported to have been torched.
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Amcu president Joseph Mathujwa claimed on Wednesday that NUM members were behind the attacks and killings.
He told media a media briefing in Johannesburg that he had requested Mantashe’s intervention to try and resolve the strike.
However, Mantashe says the situation is now out of his hands.
“When there are negotiations and there is a deadlock, the minister that has facilities to facilitate is labour. That facility is to facilitate discussions. Once the strike becomes violent it ceases to be a strike it becomes a crime scene. I’m just running the department, I can’t deal with industrial relations, I can’t deal with criminals. If there are criminals I go to the minister of police.”
Amcu has shared images on its social media pages, showing people wearing red T-shirt’s at a hostel armed with knobkerries and pangas.
According to Amcu, the people in the video are NUM members.
Cele says he hasn’t seen the footage.