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More than 524 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) at Twickenham Mine in Burgersfort in Limpopo had downed tools after Capital Development Services served the NUM with section 189A of the labour relations act.

CDS is a subsidiary of the Anglo Platinum. The company want to retrench 165 employees out of 524. The 165 employees are all members of the NUM.

The NUM members resolved to strike on Tuesday 30 June 2015 after the employer served employees with individual notice to terminate their contracts of employment.

The workers demands are as follows:

1. Employer to reinstate all employees affected.

2. Anglo platinum must do away with SAN contracting services as a Labour hire.

3. All CDS employees must be absorbed by Anglo platinum as they return to work.

"The reason of the employer to retrench these employees does not make sense. The majority of these employees likely to be retrenched are from the local communities in Burgersfort. We have also been engaging with CDS for the last 6 months where we proposed as the NUM that the company must consider VSP's as an alternative to avoid retrenchments. These employees do not even have retirement and pension funds," said Matlagolo Councellor Mmowa, NUM North East Deputy Regional Secretary of Education.

Issued by NUM