Up to 40,000 miners took to the streets of Johannesburg on Tuesday as part of a nationwide strike involving workers in the employ of Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin Platinum.

The protest formed the focus of a one-day strike in which 240,000 miners affiliated to the National Union of Miners (NUM) downed tools to protest over safety standards.

Protestors had started the day with a march from the Library Gardens to the Chamber of Mines (CoM), where memorandums were to be handed over to the CoM officials as well as representatives from the Department of Minerals and Energy, the Department of Justice and the Department of Health.

Lesiba Seshoka, spokesperson for the NUM, was confident that the strike would prove an effective way of enacting an improvement in safety standards.

He told Mining Weekly: "We believe we will achieve what we are looking for - improved safety conditions in the mines."

The strike is the first in which all mines across South Africa have been closed since the miners' strike of 1987.

Source:

Miners down tools over safety, hundreds march in Johannesburg, 04/12/07
http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=122727

UPDATE 3-South African miners to strike on Dec. 4, 27/11/07
http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2007-11-27T153604Z_01_L27131393_RTRIDST_0_SAFRICA-STRIKE-MINING-UPDATE-3.XML

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