Briefing: The politics of Marikana and South Africa's changing labour relations

Abstract

MORE THAN A YEAR AFTER the South African police killed 34 strikers in Marikana, labour unrest continues across the country’s mining sector. Industrial actions have targeted platinum giants like Amplats, the world’s largest producer, where an 11-day strike over planned retrenchments has just ended and another is looming amid fresh wage talks. Rivalry between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – aligned with the African National Congress (ANC) – and the more recent and militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) has also plagued the industry. On 17 October, an NUM branch chairperson at Lonmin – the third largest platinum producer in the world – was shot dead. Another Lonmin NUM shaft steward died in a similar situation on 3 November. A few months ago a former NUM leader who had become the AMCU regional representative in Rustenburg was ambushed – one of several from both sides assassinated since the Marikana massacre. In other words, the ‘Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry’, promoted by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and signed by parties to the industry on 3 July 2013, has so far failed to restore peace to the mining sector in Africa’s largest economy. Beyond the economic uncertainty created by the continued industrial unrest, its political consequences ahead of the next general election should not be underestimated. The NUM is affiliated to the ANC-aligned Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and was until recently South Africa’s largest trade union, partly thanks to its membership in the platinum sector, where it is now outnumbered by the AMCU. The rapid decline of the dominant trade union and the model of party–labour relations associated with it is unlikely to pose a serious challenge to South