Workers at the Zimbabwe unit of platinum miner Impala Platinum have gone on strike to force the company to pay for their personal electricity bills, which has partially hit production, state media reported on Sunday.
The state-owned Sunday Mail reported that half the workers at Zimplats’ Ngezi mine had taken mass industrial action over the electricity dispute.
No one at Zimplats was immediately available for comment to Reuters on Sunday but spokeswoman Busi Chindove told the newspaper that industrial action was taking place.
“We can confirm that some of our workers at Ngezi mine have resorted to taking industrial action. Please note, 50 percent of the workforce has reported for duty,” Chindove was quoted as saying by the Sunday Mail.
Zimplats is 87 percent owned by South Africa’s Implats and is among several foreign-owned mines being pressured by President Robert Mugabe’s government to cede majority ownership to black Zimbabweans. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)
