BUSINESS MAVERICK: After a bruising battle in the gold sector, tense wage negotiations loom in the platinum space

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BUSINESS MAVERICK: After a bruising battle in the gold sector, tense wage negotiations loom in the platinum space By Ed Stoddard

After years of bleeding cash in the face of depressed prices, soaring costs, and frequent eruptions of community and labour unrest, South Africa’s platinum sector has turned a corner: Some companies are making money again — lots of it — and are rewarding investors with dividends.

In March, the main CPI gauge was 4.5%, so 2019’s settlements could conceivably be in the single digits — a win for both sides. . And food price inflation was only 3.1% in March. Your typical mineworker has eight dependants, so pap on the table consumes much of their income. Muted food inflation is likely to mute wage demands .

Let’s start with Anglo American Platinum , the world’s top producer of the white metal. Amplats has made a dramatic and profitable pivot to mechanisation, selling off its labour-intensive shafts around Rustenburg to Sibanye-Stillwater — effectively shedding thousands of its Amcu members in the process.

Northam Platinum signed a three-year wage agreement with NUM in October at its main producing mine so it is off the table. Perhaps as a sign of things to come elsewhere, that was for annual increases of 7% for the lowest-paid workers. In 2017, Sibanye-Stillwater also reached a three-year wage agreement at its Kroondal operation which also saw annual hikes of about 7%.

Mathunjwa has compared Froneman to colonial cowboy Cecil Rhodes. Froneman, for his part, has accused Mathunjwa of pursuing a political agenda to entrench his position. Both men, who in their very different ways have dominated South African mining in recent years, are girding for a showdown.

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