* Turf war for members was backdrop to Lonmin mine killings
* Worker demands show popular anger over poverty, services
* Platinum sector struggles with soaring costs, weak demand
* Fears violence and unrest could spread to other mines
By Ed Stoddard
LYDENBURG, South Africa, Aug 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s
platinum promise of prosperity has turned into a heap of broken
dreams for Vusimuzi Mathosi, one of 2,000 workers laid off by
Aquarius Platinum at its Everest Mine.
“This place can only be sustained with platinum. What can we
do now?,” he told Reuters near the one-room box he and his
family call home in a dilapidated township on the outskirts of
Lydenburg, 300 km (180 miles) east of Johannesburg.
He belongs to the Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union (AMCU), whose b loody turf war for members
with the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was the
backdrop to Thursday’s killing of 34 striking platinum miners by
police at the Marikana mine.
When Aquarius, the world’s 4th largest producer of the
precious metal, closed production at Everest, it cited worsening
industrial relations stemming from the AMCU/NUM battle which has
turned workers into warriors across the platinum sector.
Continued…
