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SOUTH AFRICAN miners yesterday welcomed the government’s decision to suspend operations at the Optimum coalmine in Mpumalanga province.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) hailed the move by the Department of Mineral Resources under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.
The Act allows authorities to inspect and close mines and other operations without warning if they are breaching the law.
The NUM said that the mine’s owners — Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore, which has a stake in the notorious Lonmin Marikana platinum mine — had failed to comply with a section of the Act, which stipulates that employers must contribute to the social and economic development of mining communities.
Lonmin’s neglect of the living conditions of miners at Marikana was exploited by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in 2012 to incite attacks on NUM members and others.
