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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (75623)	8/28/2001 7:26:17 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Respond to of 116779

he's dead.

To: long-gone who wrote (75623)	8/28/2001 9:22:18 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116779

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said Tuesday it would ask its members to support an anti-privatization strike Wednesday and Thursday that was called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions. London(Platts)--28Aug01 "This strike will go ahead because the government is not prepared to hold off the process of privatization, engage with the unions or find a better resolution to the problem," said Moferefere Lekorotsoana, spokesman for the NUM. "The government is intent on selling state assets to private enterprise through strategic partnerships, when in the past we have seen thousands of workers lose their jobs." The NUM said around 300,000 of its membership would join the national stoppage. COSATU has a membership of 1.7-mil. IMPACT TO BE FELT RIGHT ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA'S MINING INDUSTRY The South African Chamber of Mines said Tuesday that the impact of the strike would be felt right across the mining industry. Roger Baxter, economics spokesman for the chamber, said: "We estimate that for every day of lost production, including mining production, workers wages, government taxes, purchases from suppliers and balance of payments, it costs the mining industry about Rand 625-mil/day ($74.7-mil). "The union is protecting the status quo rather than looking to the future in a country that desperately needs economic vibrancy," Baxter added. AngloGold, the world's largest gold company, and one of the biggest private sector employers in South Africa with 61,000 miners, said it was difficult to gauge the impact on production. "We have some previous experience of similar strikes and the response from our workers [to join the strike] has been patchy, at best," said Steve Lenahan, spokesman for AngloGold. He added that workers might be deterred from joining the strike as those failing to turn up for work would be unpaid. "We have been talking to COSATU over the last several weeks, but we have not made enough progress to avert the strike at our mines." Lenahan added: "It will be business as usual as far as we can manage it." Although almost of all of South Africa's mines have been in private ownership since the beginning of the last century, the NUM said the total or partial sell-off of South Africa's utilities would increase the cost of basic services such as water and telephones. "It is the poor who will be denied access to these resources and suffer when there is an increase in costs," said Lekorotsoana. He added: "It is a strike in favor of the people and not just assets." South Africa last experienced a nationwide strike in 1987, 14 years ago. platts.com