South Africa police disperse 3,000 ‘violent’ miners

South African police said they used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse 3,000 “violent” striking miners in the restive platinum belt near Marikana, where 34 workers were shot dead in 2012.

Strikers “carrying dangerous weapons, such as knobkerries (clubs) and sticks, blocked the road and were threatening to remove non-striking workers at the shaft”, police said in a statement.

Miners “threatened to attack the police with stones” and pushed officers around, the statement said, so police “were forced to use stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd”.

The incident occurred at Anglo American Platinum’s Khuseleka 1 facility in the country’s north, not far from Marikana, where police shot dead 34 miners in the worst violence since the end of apartheid.

It is the first instance of major unrest in the current sector-wide strike, now in its second week, and will raise fears of a return to bloodshed that has seen dozens of workers killed.

Police said two protesters, aged 52 and 47, were arrested following yesterday’s incident. They face charges of public violence.

Around 80,000 members of the radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) downed tools on January 23 calling for a minimum monthly wage of 12,500 rand (€800) — almost double their current pay.

Last Thursday the union rejected a three-year deal from Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin that offered a roughly a 7% annual increase.

South Africa produces 80% of the world’s platinum and around 134,000 people are employed in the sector. Platinum group metals are vital in products such as catalytic converters, computer hard disks and dental fillings.

Government-brokered talks to end the strike continued last night.