S.A. goldminers strike

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 10

S.A. goldminers strike

NZPAAP Johannesburg A black miner was killed at one gold mine and police were called to quell rioting at another on the second day of strikes by 20,000 blacks in South Africa’s leading industry. Harry Hill, a spokesman for General Mining Union Corporation, said that reasons for the wildcat strikes at three Gencor mines were unclear. But dissatisfaction with manage-ment-imposed pay rises announced on Saturday appeared to be a likely cause. The National Union of Mineworkers said that bar-

gaining with the management association, the Chamber of Mines, had broken down and it would conduct strike ballots at 29 mines. A union spokesman said support for a broader walk-out appeared to be growing. Transkei officials, meanwhile, announced in Parliament the fatal shooting of the Deputy Agriculture Minister, Cromwell Diko, in his car on Saturday. No details were given. Bombs damaged petrol, electricity and water supplies last week in Umtata, capital of the tribal homeland, the self-declared independence of which is re-

jected by anti-apaftheid militants. In Pretoria, a medical disciplinary inquiry revived memories of Steve Biko, the black consciousness leader who became a martyr in the struggle against white rule when he died from injuries suffered in police custody in 1977. Two white government doctors pleaded not guilty before the Medical and Dental Council to charges that they falsified Mr Biko’s medical records and failed to provide adequate medical care shortly before his death. The military chief Gen-

eral Constand Viljoen, announced that South African forces had returned early yesterday to South-West Africa (Namibia) from southern Angola where they had spent two days fighting black nationalist guerrillas of the South-West Africa People’s Organisation. General Viljoen said that 62 guerrillas had been killed and large amounts of arms seized, at a cost of one South African soldier killed and one wounded. S.W.A.P.O. has been fighting from bases in Angola for 19 years to end South African control of the territory. 0