Duarte challenges Pityana to walk the talk by saving jobs at Anglo Gold

African National Congress (ANC) deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte on Monday took a swipe at chairperson of Anglo Gold Ashanti Sipho Pityana over the mine’s decision to lay off more than 800 workers at its South African operations.

In response to a social media post from Cosatu on Twitter about the impending retrenchments and concerns from its affiliate‚ the National Union of Mineworkers‚ Duarte said Pityana should “prove his activism‚ stand up and fight for these jobs”.

Twitter post from ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte.

Pityana‚ who’s also an ANC veteran, is the convener of the Save South Africa coalition, which has been calling for President Jacob Zuma to resign after a raft of scandals in his time in office.

Last month, speaking in his capacity as the chairperson of the University of Cape Town council, he used his address to reiterate his call for Zuma to step down, saying he and his government had failed the country’s students.

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On Friday NUM confirmed in a statement it had received Section 189 notice from Anglo Gold Ashanti to retrench 849 workers.

The union’s spokesperson, Livhuwani Mammburu, said they were extremely disappointed and perturbed that Anglo Gold Ashanti was likely to retrench such a huge number of workers at the time when there is a high rate of unemployment in the country.

“The NUM is going to meet with the company on Monday, to seek avoidance measures. If no agreement is reached with the company on Monday, we will resort to [the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] CCMA for facilitation,” Mammburu said.