Workers at the South African Kleinkopje coal mine, run by global mining group Anglo American embarked on an illegal strike on Tuesday morning (March 12) over internal issues specific to the mine, Financial Times reported. The move follows a strike at five coal mines operated by South African diversified mining group Exxaro Resources and points to a worrying trend of a spreading industrial unrest in the coal mining sector. The current industrial auction comes after about three months of relative calmness in South Africas mining sector, following a widespread wave of illegal work stoppages that affected mainly the gold and platinum sectors for several months in the second half of 2012, causing serious damages to Africas biggest economy in terms of lost output, which dented growth, and deterioration in the investment climate. Anglo American and Exxaro are South Africa's two biggest coal producers and prolonged strikes could also affect energy supply, as the two firms are the main suppliers of coal to the thermal power plants of South Africas national power utility Eskom. Coal-fired power plants account for about 85% of Eskoms total output. |
South African company Exxaro Resources said one of the options it currently considers is dismissing striking coal mine workers who fail to return to work in the week of March 25, fin24 reported ... more
South Africas telecommunication operator Telkom said that it has not made a decision on retrenching 13,000 employees, or more than half of its staff, TechCentral reported quoting a company ... more
Oryx Energies, a major independent provider of oil and gas products and services in Africa, has agreed to buy the South African liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution businesses of BP and ... more