BACK TO BASICS

Press Statement, 15 march 2022

WFTU supports the clarion call by NUM demanding the resignation of Sibanye Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) has been observing very closely the protracted negotiations between Sibanye Stillwater with organized trade unions with the company ironically practising what their predecessor ‘Goldfields’ would normally do to frustrate the workers. We want to categorically state that as WFTU we fully support the clarion call by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)’s demand to have the CEO removed with immediate effect.

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was established in Paris on 3 October 1945. The First World Trade Union Congress (Paris, 3-8 October 1945) which voted to establish the WFTU was attended by delegates representing 67 million workers from 56 national organizations from 55 countries and 20 international organizations. 

This is unbecoming for a company such as Sibanye Stillwater in the context of the current dispensation wherein, they sought to sow division by driving a wedge between organized labour exerting racial connotations.

"We thus without any bigotry condemn with the strongest terms it deserves the systematic tendency of Sibanye Stillwater to viciously place productive operations under care and maintenance purely to slow down the productivity of those mines and ultimately cripple the economy of the country," Maja Mphahlele, WAFTU Africa Regional Coordinator.

We want to urge Sibanye Stillwater to respect the bargaining rules inter alia by reconvening the negotiations with the aim of finding an amicable solution. We do not want to sound like we are playing a man, not a ball. The behavior of the Chief Executive Officer Neal Froneman raises more questions than answers to the disparaging operation of the mines," Mphahlele added.

Accordingly, we will keep an eye to the paradigm shift, hopefully stemming from our remarkable experience of dealing with conflict resolutions and failure to accede to this noble request will leave us with no other alternative but to galvanize progressive forces to hold the company accountable.

To this end, we will make sure that our war room is fully charged and geared to take any instructions from our ranks and files in pursuit of salvaging the daunting situation which is about to befall should the company continue to play hide and seek.

DOWN WITH CAPITALIST BARBARISM DOWN

For more information, please contact: 

Maja Mphahlele, WAFTU Africa Regional Coordinator, 082 677 4241

The National Union of Mineworkers
7 Rissik Street.
Cnr Frederick Johannesburg
Tel: 011 377 2111 Cell: 083 809 3257
Twitter: @Num_Media

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NUM/100860023402167