South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday abandoned his International Workers’ Day speech in the northwestern city of Rustenburg when striking miners stormed the stage.
The workers employed by Sibanye-Stillwater, a gold mining company, are demanding a wage increase of 1,000 rand (US$63) per month instead of the 850 rand being offered by the mine.
Ramaphosa had decided to mark May 1, a public holiday in South Africa, by giving a speech to union members in Rustenburg, a mining center.
Photo: AP
Ramaphosa was booed as he started his address with a call for the striking workers and other members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions to calm down and listen to what he had to say.
“We have heard that you want your 1,000 rand. We will deal with that matter,” Ramaphosa told the protesting workers.
Shortly after that, Ramaphosa was forced to give up his speech altogether when angry miners stormed the field and overwhelmed police surrounding the stage at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium.
Ramaphosa’s security guards whisked him away from the venue.
The striking workers have become even angrier in the past few days over reports that Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman earned more than US$19 million last year in salary payments and company share schemes.
Rustenburg in North West Province is a tumultuous area for Ramaphosa and South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party.
Many union members continue to blame them for the Marikana massacre, when 34 miners were shot dead by police during a strike at the Lonmin Mine in 2012, when Ramaphosa was a non-executive director of Lonmin.
The tumultuous scene on Sunday showed the challenges that Ramaphosa faces later this year in his effort to be re-elected head of the African National Congress, as the unions comprise a key constituency of the party.
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