Gasp, horror, shock. The poor government didn’t see that vast amounts of jobs would be lost as a result of their poor management of an on-going crisis in the mining sector in South Africa.

Sometimes the government really does behave like a needy, spoiled baby.

Anglo Platinum yesterday announced that it planned to restructure major parts of its strike-hit operations and this included closing four shafts and the selloff of a mine considered unsustainable.

13 000 of the proposed 14 000 job cuts would happen in the Rustenburg area – famous for one thing at the moment: the Lonmin massacre.

Said Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu:

It is regrettable that the company consulted with [my] department less than seven days ago despite the major secio-economic ramifications of its decision.

We are surprised and shocked today.

The minister was last year informed by Amplats that the company was facing problems and considering restructuring. At the time, she told them that they were to discuss this with her first before taking any action because of the vast ramifications of any such decisions.

But that hasn’t happened because sometimes business decisions don’t involve big whinging babies that can’t even manage themselves.

Continued the minister, about plans to redistribute retrenched workers in other industries such as brick laying:

It tends to create a grim future for those workers. You can’t train at the tail end of everything…those skills are not created in a sustainable way. They must not talk about sectors they do not understand.

Updated: it has this morning been reported that Amplats miners are refusing to go underground and begin their shifts today in the wake of the news that they may be losing their jobs. This started last night and the ANC has come out with guns blazing. It has said Anglo Platinum wants the country’s mining industry “to [go to] the dogs.” Said Jackson Mthembu:

The ANC condemns the action taken by Anglo American Platinum Limited who have exploited and then mercilessly created conditions to eliminate 14 000 jobs of which 13 000 are in the Rustenburg area.

[Source: Fin24]