Union leaders to tell workers to end three-week camp at Union Buildings

Union leaders are expected to address striking Sibanye-Stillwater mineworkers at the Union Buildings on Thursday afternoon.

Miners who have been camping outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria for the past three weeks could be seen singing and gathering in anticipation of the mass meeting on Thursday morning.

The aim of the meeting, according to National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) regional secretary Bonginkosi Mrasi, is to ask the workers to go home so that they can attend another meeting on Friday where they will get details on a proposed wage offer. The striking workers also include members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

Negotiations between unions and the company management have been going on for the past three months with no resolution. The workers want a R1,000 monthly increase for three years and 6% wage increase. 

Polokwane Motsamane, 50, a worker who has been sleeping outside the Union Buildings for the past two weeks, said they would not leave without their demands being met.

“Our feet [are] swollen and we are tired. We have been sleeping outside in the cold and inside buses with no access to water. But we will not go until we get what we want,” Motsamane said.