--Gold One says its security guards used rubber bullets to
disperse illegal strike
--Police say four people hospitalized
--Strikes spreading across mining sector
(Adds details of new protest at Gold One, police and company
comments.)
By Devon Maylie
JOHANNESBURG--Gold One International Ltd. (GDO.AU) said four
protesters were treated at a hospital for injuries Monday after its
security guards fired rubber bullets and police fired tear gas to
disperse an angry crowd in an illegal strike at its mine in South
Africa.
The latest labor clash left South African authorities once again
scrambling to restore the peace, following a spate of illegal
strikes that first affected platinum miners and now gold producers.
The strikes have rippled through South Africa's mining sector since
police shot into a crowd of protesters Aug. 16 at Lonmin PLC's
(LMI.LN) Marikana mine, killing 34 people. The sometimes violent
protests have disrupted mines' production, pitted unions against
one another in a growing battle for membership, and rocked the
nation's political establishment.
The strike at Gold One's Modder East mine began early Monday
when protesters blocked the entrance. The protesters included about
60 former employees from the company and from a nearby mine, which
President Jacob Zuma's nephew and former president Nelson Mandela's
grandson used to run.
South Africa's second-largest gold producer, Gold Fields Ltd.
(GFI), also said Monday that workers continued an illegal strike at
its KDC Gold Mine, which had begun Wednesday evening.
Expelled African National Congress Youth League leader Julius
Malema has inflamed the tensions by visiting mines to call on
workers to strike for better conditions, including a visit last
week to those around the Gold One mine.
Gold One said the striking workers Monday threw stones at
vehicles entering and exiting the mine until tear gas and rubber
bullets broke up the crowd.
Police spokeswoman Capt. Pinky Tsinyane said an investigation is
under way after police arrested four people and another four were
taken to the hospital for treatment. The striking miners, carrying
traditional sticks and iron rods, had rushed toward the police, Ms.
Tsinyane said.
In June, Gold One dismissed 1,035 workers who had joined an
illegal strike. Some of those protesting outside the company's mine
Monday had been fired in June.
Another group of workers joining the protest were from the gold
mine previously operated by Aurora Empowerment Systems, a
consortium run by Mr. Mandela's grandson Zondwa Mandela and Mr.
Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma.
Liquidators in 2009 awarded the East Rand property to be managed
by Aurora Empowerment Systems. But the team stopped paying workers
and didn't perform maintenance at the property. Liquidators finally
kicked the company off the property this year. Gold One is in the
process of purchasing the mine area.
The strikes come as the government tries to calm tensions in the
mining sector, after state prosecutors charged 270 of the Lonmin
protesters with murdering the 34 fellow protesters who were shot
earlier this month. The state prosecutors backed down from the
charges over the weekend in the face of political backlash.
Write to Devon Maylie at devon.maylie@dowjones.com
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