Lonmin lost R504m in the 42-day strike
Concern about possible job losses
RELIEVED WORKERS: Marikana miners at Wonderkop Stadium after they accepted the pay increase. PHOTO : ANTONIO MUCHAVE
JSE-listed Lonmin has lost an estimated R504-million in revenue due to the strike which lasted 42 days and resulted in 45 deaths and unrest in the platinum and gold mining sectors.
Nedbank Capital analyst Mohammed Nalla said it would be interesting to see whether the higher wage bill would not have a domino effect, resulting in thousands of jobs being lost in the mining sector in the long term.
"The mining sector employs 357,000 people who each has up to 10 dependants.
"If the higher wage bill results in mining jobs being lost, this means that more than three million people could be affected," Nalla said.
Nalla's comments came after striking miners at the Marikana mine accepted pay increases of up to 22%.
Nalla said international investors would play a wait-and-see game to observe whether the implications of the strike do not spill over to other mines and sectors in the country.
He said the the strike was a result of mining labourers wanting to see their quality of life improve.
He said that the strike would not have happened if Lonmin had been serious about empowering their workers at their mine.
"In hindsight, the strike at Lonmin mine might not have taken place if empowerment structures implemented by mining companies Exxaro and Kumba Iron Ore were replicated," Nalla said.
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Comments
MorenaWaPolelo
The retrenchment will be massive and I see this happen before year end or early next year, the shareholders will not part with that amount of money for the sake of miners that I know!!!Report Abuse
jerico
LONMIN will never and i repeat will never hire anyone after this instead they will be retrenching some of the miners just to balance their budget.Report Abuse
Mosquer
If they would've listen that money would've been a gain.zooma got a salary increase. more than 2.6 a year.
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Flemza
Its a pity if if these miners will be retrenched now , but they asked for it and I don`t careReport Abuse
Msiphos00
Kwasuka ke lokho.Report Abuse
RVP
Thats small change for the mine, they'll make it back within 2-3weeks.Report Abuse
Limpopoist
Remember tha article about the richest poeple in SA,most at in mining idustry and I believe fight is about how much they will esecure for their pocket OR allow miner to have something in their pocketReport Abuse
MorenaWaPolelo
MosquerHe got 5.5% sir
Report Abuse
Chichi7
They asked for itReport Abuse
JohnStone
@MosquerIf they would've listen that money would've been a gain.
zooma got a salary increase. more than 2.6 a year.
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Zuma does not work for Lonmin, or does he? The last time I checked, Zuma was president of the Republic of South Africa. This country has had presidents who served before Zuma and they were not volunteers, they all earned their salaries and and also received increases, stop bitching about the president's salary because it will never change irrespective of who the president is, the least you can do is to try, try very hard to also become president of your local stokvel.
Back to the real issue of Lonmin, it is very clear that we the public were lied to about how much the miners earned. The lowest paid at Lonmin (general workers) are receiving 22% ( R 1400), that takes them to just above R 9000. If indeed they earned R 4000, that would only translate to R 5 400. People died because of lies, repeated lies that started to sound like the truth.
The real truth will come out when Lonmin starts retrenching, I am certain AMCU and Julius will not set foot at Wonderkop for fear of what the miners will do to them. Only time will tell..............
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