Almost a quarter of a million mineworkers downed tools yesterday in South Africa, the world's top gold and platinum producer, in the country's first strike over safety conditions in some of the world's deepest mines.

The powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which once led opposition to minority white rule, called out 240,000 members from midnight in its first nationwide one-day stoppage since the end of apartheid in 1994. The union accused mining companies of endangering lives in the rush to take advantage of a boom in commodity prices.

This year's death toll has reached 200, mostly owing to rock falls and explosions in several mines. Many mines have been unchanged for decades but recently reopened, thanks to high world prices that have made them profitable again. The NUM has warned the Government and leading international companies that it will not stand by and watch what it calls “mining genocide” go unanswered.

“If the big companies do not do anything to improve safety, we will be back on the streets again, we will stop the mines with a two or three-month strike,” Lesiba Seshoka, the union's spokesman, told a protest in the centre of Johannesburg.

World platinum and copper markets were disrupted by the action, which comes at a time of heightened political tension in the country as the ruling African National Congress faces one of the worst internal crises in its history over choosing a successor to President Mbeki.

Production was affected at about 700 mines across the country, with owners and union officials saying that only a small percentage of the normal workforce had reported for duty.

Many attended rallies, such as the one in central Johannesburg, organised by the NUM — still by far the most powerful member of the Confederation of South African Trade Unions, which is backing Mr Mbeki's rival Jacob Zuma for the leadership of the party and the country.

The protesters handed in a petition outlining their grievances to the Chamber of Mines, the organisation that regulates the industry.

“We are dying in mines but we get nothing. We want change, we want to work safe,” Thembisile Marrent, 26, an employee at the Kloof goldmine in northern Mpumalanga province, said. “When you get accidents the boss wants to know how it happened - if you made a mistake or if it was bad luck. If the mistake is yours, they charge you [with disciplinary offences] even though you are in hospital.”

Many protesting workers, clad in overalls and stomping their boots to music, carried banners saying that profits from the industry, which also includes diamond mines, were “dripping in blood”.

The strike had an immediate impact on the stock market's mining sector — a message that will not be lost either on the unions or employers.

BELOW THE SURFACE

–– South Africa has the world’s largest reserves of gold, platinum, and manganese ore, the fourth-largest diamond industry and the ninth-largest aluminium industry

–– The mineral industry constitutes 25-30 per cent of GDP

–– The gold industry is responsible for more than 50 per cent of employment in the country

–– A miner earns on average £200 a month

–– South Africa’s gold mines are the world’s deepest. Savuka mine extends nearly 2 1/2 miles underground

Sources: minerals.usgs.gov; mbendi.co.za; infomine.com; southafrica.info; International Organisation for Migration

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