* Amplats fires 12,000 wildcat strikers
* Local NUM leader shot dead near Lonmin
* “Platinum belt” death toll nears 50
* Rand falls as labour unrest spreads
* Shell declares “force majeure”
By Agnieszka Flak
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 5 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Amplats
fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday, a high-stakes
attempt by the world’s biggest platinum producer to push back at
a wave of illegal stoppages sweeping through the country’s
mining sector and beyond.
Later on, a trade union leader was shot dead near a mine run
by platinum producer Lonmin in a potentially
explosive escalation of the two-month-old violent labour unrest
that took the death toll to 49.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Lesiba Seshoka
said the NUM branch leader had been killed “execution style” in
the evening but gave no further details.
Continued…
