AFRICA NEWS
Rival unions unite in dispute over gold miner pay
29TH SEPTEMBER 2021
BY: BLOOMBERG
South Africa’s long-divided mining unions are forging a united front against the industry’s largest employer as they declared a dispute over wage negotiations with Sibanye-Stillwater.
The National Union of Mineworkers, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, UASA and Solidarity will hold an unprecedented joint press conference over their issues with the company on October 1, the labour groups said Wednesday in a statement. Collectively, they are asking for a monthly pay increase of R1 500 rand for workers in Sibanye’s gold mines. The deal would run over each of the next three years.
A united labor force will present a different dynamic for South African mining companies. NUM and AMCU, the biggest unions in the gold sector, have previously refused to sit at the same negotiating table, with a history of violent clashes between their members. Three years ago, AMCU embarked on a five-month strike that crippled Sibanye’s gold mines after it initially rejected a wage deal that had been agreed upon by the other unions.
“We are all fighting for the common cause,” said NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu. “What’s the use of allowing companies like Sibanye-Stillwater to divide us.”
The unions signed a wage deal earlier this month with Harmony Gold Mining Co., which Sibanye should reference for its own offer, they said. Harmony workers will receive a monthly pay increase of R1 000 for each year of the agreement.
The labour groups have declared a dispute and the talks are now taking place under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, said Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted. The wage increases are unaffordable for the company and “will result in the early closure of the mines if we accede to the unions demands,” he said.
Sibanye employs almost 31 000 workers in a South African gold industry that’s struggling to curb costs amid the geological challenges of the world’s deepest mines. 
Humanitarian Crisis in Mozambique As Militants Use Child Soldiers
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced the use of child soldiers by the Islamic State-linked insurgent group Al-Shabaab, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. HRW in a statement, said that the armed group abducted hundreds of boys, some as young as 12, trained them in bases across Cabo Delgado province, and forced them to fight alongside adults against government forces. It added that in the town of Palma, parents said they watched their sons wield guns when they returned with other fighters to raid their village.
Despite the progress in pushing back the insurgents, there is still a humanitarian crisis in Cabo Delgado. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, 862,990 people have been displaced due to the violence. It calculates that 48.2% of these are children and 11% of the displaced people are now based in resettlement sites, 6% in temporary accommodation, and 82.7% living with host families.
The UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which Mozambique ratified in 2004, prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting children under the age of 18. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court categorizes as a war crime the conscription, enlistment, or active use of children under 15 years old in active hostilities during armed conflict.
AllAfrica's Silencing The Guns series focuses on peacebuilding on the continent, and today we're talking about the situation in Mozambique, where terror engulfs the northern province of Cabo Delgado. We'll hear from David Matsinhe, Southern African researcher at Amnesty International and author, historian, and peace practitioner Yussuf Adam, who shares his experiences after a field visit in the north.
First, delving into what led Cabo Delgado to become the centre of battles between government troops and fighters led by men the U.S. has now designated as Islamist terrorists, then one of the most respected long-term researchers of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique speaks out after seeing the horrific living conditions of Mozambicans displaced by the ongoing fighting.
Villagers Demand Complete Halt to Namibia Sand Mining
The meeting sought to iron out a longstanding conflict with the OTA who were granted a licence to mine sand at Ondado C against the wishes of the community. In June 2021, that licence was revoked, following complaints from the community, of which the environmental commissioner Timoteus Mufeti found that the OTA had transgressed, after the extraction activities interfered with underground water.
Excessive sand mining can alter a river bed, force the river to change course, erode banks and lead to flooding. It also destroys the habitat of aquatic animals and micro-organisms besides affecting groundwater recharge. Sand mining generates extra vehicle traffic, which negatively impairs the environment.
Can Agritech Bring Africa's Young People Back to Farming
As communities in Africa start to rebound from the initial impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic and look ahead, the importance of creating millions of jobs for the continent's booming youth population cannot be overstated. This will require concerted efforts across myriad sectors. One sector that is brimming with vast and untapped resources, is agriculture.
The future of food on the continent is in the hands of African farmers, particularly our young farmers, of whom we are in desperately short supply. About 60% of Africans are under 25 years old, but the average age of Africa's smallholder farmers is over 60 years.
Too many young people view farming as exhausting work with antiquated tools for very low pay. A report released by Heifer International in August 2021 explained why young people are turning away from agriculture. The report emphasised that this is a major opportunity to evolve the sector and bring them back, writes Adesuwa Ifedi for African Arguments.
The report also found that with the appropriate financing, training, and access to technologies, many more African youth would seriously consider pursuing a career in agriculture. The survey, which included focus groups with farmers and tech companies, revealed evidence of rapidly growing agritech start-ups operated by creative young people across the continent. By encouraging and supporting this new generation of innovators, the report says that access to labour-saving and transformative technologies for huge numbers of smallholder farmers, can be boosted.
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