SACP+statement+on+De+Beers+Mines+planned+retrenchments

SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY NORTHERN CAPE

 * Office of the Provincial Secretary**

//Sanlam Building. 1st Floor. Jones Street. Kimberley. 8301 Telephone 053 8312512. Facsimile: 053 832 5855//

=SACP statement on De Beers Mines planned retrenchments at the Kimberley Mines=

The SACP in Northern Cape wants to state unequivocally that we are outraged at the planned retrenchments at De Beers Kimberley Mines and the company’s decision to close down without proper consultation with the unions in particular the National Union of Mineworker (NUM).

This blatant and arrogant perpetuation of the **//jobloss bloodbath//**, in the wake of a 40% unemployment and grinding poverty for millions of our people, runs counter to what government and our country have committed themselves to - **//creating work and fighting poverty//**. De Beers is doing the exact opposite - **//destroying work and deepening poverty//**, thus threatening to reverse some of the gains we have made during the first decade of our democracy.

The SACP finds it insensitive that further retrenchments are announced, which are tantamount to trading workers’ jobs and their only means of livelihood for profit margins, in the name of ensuring a profitable future for De Beers Consolidated Mines and **//outrageous remuneration packages for management//**. This is frankly an insult to the sacrifices and struggles made by millions of our people to create a better and more equitable South Africa. De Beers is wittingly entrenching the structural crisis of the SA economy, which among others things is characterized by **//over-accumulation//** existing side by side with growing surpluses of unemployed black workers and intensifying geographic unevenness. In the main, De Beers is proving to be an expression of the ugliest face of monopoly capitalism in our country, leading from the front in its assault on the working class in general, and the black working class in particular. The question which we should be asking is; ‘who are the beneficiaries in so-called R50 million investment to upgrade the Kimberley Big Hole precinct?’ Is it the workers of De Beers or the surrogates and beneficiaries of the skewed ‘Black Economic Empowerment’.

The working class and ordinary people of Kimberley deserve better, because their labour created the wealth which this multinational commands today.

We also call upon the labour movement in general, particularly the National Union of Mineworkers in particular, to challenge these moves by De Beers. As South African communists and the working class in general, we are ready to do all we can to throw our full weight behind such a challenge to De Beers.

Contact:

SACP Provincial Secretary South African Communist Party (Northern Cape) Tel - 053 8312512 Fax - 053 8325855 Cell – 0823768311 E-mail: mnshushu@msn.com**
 * Norman Shushu

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