In a letter sent to workers on Friday, which Eyewitness News has seen, the company demands that the hundreds of workers who took part in an unprotected strike be excluded from the workplace.
Illegal miners extract billions of rand worth of minerals from closed mines, while the industry was complaining of a siege by armed robbers who storm operations regularly.
Xolani Meva, Lungile Nyawose, Katleho Nthibane and Karabo Mabuthile died at shaft number 10 following a rockfall caused by tremor on Friday.
The NUM has not been in the area for seven years after rival union, Amcu took over as the largest union for workers in the region.
NUM wants the government to abandon its plans to split Eskom into three divisions, fearing that this will lead to its privatisation.
On Wednesday, the company announced its decision to cut 5,270 jobs at its Marikana mine in the North West due to financial losses.
NUM was reacting to the company’s announcement that at the conclusion of its restructuring consultation processes, it had decided to close about four shafts.
NUM said the industrial action was officially over and the parties had agreed to an 8% salary increase.
'City Press' on Sunday quoted anonymous sources in the union as saying that the cash-strapped power utility was battling to find money to pay staff amid a massive energy shortage.
The union announced on Tuesday that it will be staging a secondary strike at the mine against plans to restructure the company.
NUM has threatened to withhold its support for the ANC during the May elections if government goes ahead with plans to unbundle the state-owned utility.
President Ramaphosa says the government will be meeting with labour in the coming days to thrash out their concerns and he’s hoping it will be a collaborative process.
The power utility says that even with this hefty hike it will still have a R50 billion debt hole to plug.
The National Union of Mineworkers says Eskom needs to communicate their intentions effectively.
The Labour Court on Friday disagreed with the mining company’s reason for judging the strike as unprotected.
Amcu says it’s been made aware of an agreement signed between NUM and the company, although workers belonging to majority union are from Amcu and they remain on strike.
It’s understood the Optimum employees have not been paid their November salaries which were due last week, and the contract workers are now two months behind.
The union is marching against an agreement signed by the Energy Department which will see solar and wind power plants being built in rural Mpumalanga.
