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The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) will today meet with the Minister of Labour and other stakeholders over the violence and killings that took place at Marikana on 16 August 2012. The main objective of the meeting is to arrive at a peace accord to bring parties closer together.

“We will obviously do our utmost to take hands with everybody involved to try and solve this complicated matter,” said FEDUSA representative Leon Grobler. “It is important that all stakeholders are involved to find a lasting and peaceful resolution,” he added.

FEDUSA has earlier called for stricter regulation of the platinum mining sector, inter alia calling for the speedy establishment of a centralised bargaining structure.

“Although the proposed peace accord will have a lot of political and symbolic value, we need to address the substantive matters which led to the dispute soonest. The issue of a Bargaining Council with specific Chambers have been on the table for more than a year now,” said Grobler. “However, the employers in the sector have been reluctant to agree to its establishment. They [the employers] previously requested a grace period of a further year, but this is no longer acceptable to the parties representing organised labour. Let us hope that the events of 16 August [2012] will give the necessary impetus to the process,” he concluded.