South Africa mine dispute continues

In South Africa violence has spread to the eastern operations of world No. 3 platinum producer Lonmin, raising concerns of deadly unrest flaring again after 44 people were killed this month in labour strife. Lonmin said only about 13 percent of its 28,000-strong workforce has shown up on Monday. The killings have focused the world's attention on working conditions in the country's mining industry.

“South Africa has done quite a lot actually to improve the situation as regards to safety and health in mines in the last years,” said Martin Hahn, a mining specialist with the International Labour Organization.

“They have been a fruitful decades of changes ever since 1994. A lot of legislative change has happened in South Africa, and there has also been very serious effort in making better implementation happen on the ground. In addition to that, a lot of the large companies…have together with the workers tried to improve the situation. Nevertheless, there are still lots to be done, especially when we look at the fact this is a very important industry for South Africa. It seems that South Africa should do more still to further bring down fatalities in the mines.”

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