* Four injured in unrest at Gold One mine “shoot-out”
* Government trying to broker labour peace at Lonmin
* Striking Marikana miners want more than double present pay
By Ed Cropley
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3 (Reuters) – South African police fired
tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse striking miners at a
gold mine near Johannesburg on Monday, the latest outbreak in a
wave of labour militancy spreading from platinum mining into
other parts of the sector.
The unrest occurred less than three weeks after police shot
dead 34 striking miners at Lonmin’s Marikana
mine, the deadliest security incident since the end of
apartheid, or white minority rule, in 1994.
The Marikana shooting, which local media dubbed a massacre,
shocked South Africa and marred the image of Africa’s biggest
economy as the full extent of a breakdown in labour relations in
the mining sector became apparent. World platinum prices have
risen nearly 10 percent since the shooting.
In Monday’s incident, mine owner Gold One International Ltd
said about 60 workers at its Modder East site went on a
wildcat strike, blocking half the company’s employees from
reporting for their shifts.
“The group, however, refused to disperse. The South African
Police Service had to use tear gas and rubber bullets to
disperse the group,” it said in a statement.
Continued…
