Massive job cuts loom at Sibanye-Stillwater over ‘cash burn’

A R1.8 billion cash burn in nine months is the main reason behind mining company Sibanye-Stillwater’s “restructuring”, which could result in about 5,000 jobs cut at its Marikana operation in North West, previously under Lonmin.

Sibanye-Stillwater announced on Wednesday it had filed a section 189A notice in terms of the Labour Relations Act to cut more than 5,270 jobs due to ongoing financial losses. This comprises 3,904 employees and 1,366 contractors.

“Some of the restructuring is due to the older generation one shafts running out of mineable reserves and therefore reaching the end of their mine life,” said Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson James Wellsted.

He said that by the end of August this year, the underperformance of the Marikana operation had resulted in a cash burn of $127 million (about R1.8 billion) in a period of nine months.

“As was communicated by Lonmin over the past two years, the Marikana operation has been experienced ongoing financial losses and Lonmin as an independent entity was no longer a going concern. Some of the restructuring is due to the older generation one shafts running out of mineable reserves and therefore reaching the end of their mine life,” said Wellsted.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said it would oppose the retrenchments by SibanyeStillwater.

“For now, we emphasise that this notice again clearly shows the principle of profit over people,” said Amcu in a statement. “The sad reality is that if workers escape being killed while working in these mines, section 189 of the Labour Relations Act becomes another weapon to secure the super profits of mining bosses.”

Chief executive officer of Sibanye-Stillwater Neal Froneman said the proposed restructuring was to ensure the sustainability of the Marikana operation caused by the ongoing financial losses experienced at these operations, with certain shafts having reached the end of their economic reserve lives.

“While the review process concluded that certain shafts, most of which were at the end of their operating lives, would be affected, other shafts which had previously been at risk, such as 4B shaft, K3 mining into Siphumelele ground, Roland mining into MK2 ground as well as K4 concentrator, will continue to operate, thereby lessening potential job losses,” said Froneman.

“Overall, the outcome will be a more sustainable business which is able to secure employment for the majority of the Marikana workforce for a much longer period.”

However, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said the job cuts were a way of maximising profits for the shareholders at the expense of poor mineworkers, who earn poverty wages.

“It has become a national crisis because the same company has retrenched 6,000 mineworkers in the gold sector. These drastic actions will put the lives of mineworkers in a dire situation,” said Mammburu.

He said the retrenchments would not only affect the lives of the mineworkers, but also their families.

“You must understand that one mineworker supports about 10 family members so there will be a ripple effect,” he said.

Mammburu said they would negotiate with the company to either upskill the workers or redeploy some of them to other operations in the mine.

‘Always a reason behind mining strikes’

Mining and labour analyst Mamokgethi Molopyane said it was common for strikes during wage negotiations but, in the mining sector, they were not as prevalent as other industries.

“Wage strikes in the mining industry don’t just randomly happen, the workers have to go through a process of negotiations represented by the unions before they embark on a strike, so there is always a reason for a strike, especially in the mining industry,” she said.

“There haven’t been any long strikes in SA that last for months because negotiations are different, there’s more of a collective bargaining forum.”

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