* Amplats becomes latest target of labour unrest
* Marchers block access to shafts
* ANC renegade Malema ridicules Zuma leadership
* Platinum prices spike, Amplats shares fall
By Siphiwe Sibeko and David Dolan
BATHOPELE MINE, South Africa, Sept 12 (Reuters) –
M achete-wielding strikers forced top world platinum producer
Anglo American Platinum to shut down some of its South
African operations on Wednesday, widening the labour unrest
sweeping through the country’s mining industry.
A column of 1,500 chanting marchers confronted a small group
of riot police backed by armoured vehicles at the gates of the
firm’s Bathopele shaft in the “platinum belt” near Rustenburg,
100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.
The protesters jeered workers inside the plant, a repeat of
action taken on Monday at rival Lonmin’s
neighbouring Marikana mine, where police shot dead 34 striking
miners on Aug. 16.
“All of us, we’re going to close all the operations,
starting from Rustenburg. We’ll go even to the gold mines to
stop the operations,” marcher Evans Ramokga told Reuters.
Continued…
