NUM calls off South Deep strike, but Gold Fields is wary
A six-week strike at Gold Fields's South Deep is called off by the NUM, but the company remains wary of violence as workers return
The National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM's) head office called off the union's six-week industrial action at Gold Fields's South Deep mine, raising hopes that a violent strike has come to an end. Gold Fields, however, remains cautious about calling the strike over, citing internal wranglings within the union and the possibility of the branch leadership structure and its supporters not heeding the call to end the strike. Gold Fields told its employees on Tuesday evening it had received notification from the NUM's head office that the strike was over. The branch leadership was suspended by the national office after Gauteng regional chair Ndlela Radebe was attacked and stabbed on December 3, following his address to a mass rally of workers calling on the branch leadership to end the strike. Once the branch leadership was suspended the regional leadership took over their duties and called an end to the strike, which had been called to protest against the retrenchment of 1,082 South Deep ...
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