Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa was in a typically combative mood when he addressed the media in Sandton on Tuesday 13 August, railing about the “greed of the multinationals” and their “appetite for exploiting the black majority”.
Years ago, a former platinum boss told this correspondent that Mathunjwa “could read an income statement” and he has certainly been taking a look at recent platinum financials. In a prepared statement, he noted Impala Platinum’s financial turnaround and the more than doubling of Anglo American Platinum’s interim earnings to over R7-billion.
Unlike gold, platinum negotiates on a company by company basis. Amcu said Amplats’ offer in the first year was an increase of R1,000 a month for the lowest-paid categories and then an extra R800 a month in the next two years. The first-year offer is only R500 less than Amcu’s demands, so Mathunjwa said he could “see light at the end of the tunnel” when it came to Amplats.
Lonmin has put on the table an extra R300 a month for year one, R350 for year two and R400 for year three – an offer that Mathunjwa said was “an insult to workers”. He also said the union believed that “Sibanye is trying to provoke us into a strike”.that: “The offer we have made reflects the current financial and operating position at the Marikana operations, which we have explained clearly to Amcu.