Mining Minister Ramatlhodi: If no platinum deal on Monday, I’m out

From the SA Press Association:

The mineral resource department will pull out of negotiations in the platinum wage dispute if parties do not come to an agreement next week, Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Saturday.

"On Monday all the parties [mine executives and Amcu] will be coming back. Hopefully we will have a happy Monday or we will have a sad Monday if the parties decide not to walk the last mile," he told reporters in Irene, south of Pretoria.

"I am pulling out on Monday if they do not find each other. If they do not find each other I wish them and South Africa luck."

Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members at Lonmin, Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum downed tools on January 23 demanding a basic monthly salary of R12,500.

They have so far rejected the companies' offer that would bring their cash remuneration to R12,500 by July 2017.

The strike has cost the employers R21.2 billion in revenue and employees have reportedly lost R9.4bn in earnings.   Ramatlhodi said government can only take the warring "parties to the river but can't force them to drink".   He said both parties had been negotiating in good faith and government had done enough to mediate, particularly in the last two weeks.   "It is not our job to create an agreement which is binding between the parties. They must arrive at an agreement themselves and our institutions must then bless that [agreement]," said Ramatlhodi.   Last week, the minister set up an inter-governmental technical team to help resolve the wage dispute.  

Reuters reports from Pretoria: 

South African mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Saturday he had "done enough work" in mediating between the AMCU union and the world's top three platinum firms and he believed the two sides would resolve a five-month strike in talks on Monday.

"I think reason will prevail on Monday and we'll get a solution," he told a news conference, adding that he had seen both sides giving ground in their demands.

However, he also made it clear an agreement to end the longest mining strike in South African history was not guaranteed.

"We can take them to the river, but we can't make them drink," he said.

Ramatlhodi added that the government would pull out of mediation if the two sides did not reach an agreement.

"I'm hoping the parties can run the last stretch and take us out of the quagmire," he said.

Members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) downed tools at Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin in January demanding that their basic wages be more than doubled to 12,500 rand ($1,200) a month.

The union has so far rejected offers from the company and those proposed by a government team mediating the dispute, dashing hopes of an immediate end to a strike that has halted mines that normally account for 40 percent of global platinum output.

The strike has also hit wider economic output in Africa's most advanced economy, pushing it into contraction in the first quarter of this year.