About R500-million worth of diamonds failed to reach the United Kingdom following strike action at the South African Diamond and Precious Metal Regulator offices in Johannesburg.
The workers at the parastatal, formerly known as the Diamond Board, went on strike on Friday morning demanding a 10-percent salary increase and R1000 housing allowance from their bosses. The workers affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have accused the parastatal bosses of dragging their feet on meeting their demands.
NUM branch chairman Mangaliso Babu said his union met with the parastatal management on Thursday night but they only offered a nine percent salary increase.
“The company only offered a nine percent salary increase but we rejected it. Management also said nothing about the housing allowance increase. We are currently receiving R877 for housing allowance but it has been the same amount for the past 20 years,” Babu said.
Insiders told IOL that the diamond export company missed the deadline to send the diamonds overseas. According to them, these diamonds were due in London for aggregation with diamonds from other countries.
“Some of the diamonds were supposed to come back to South Africa to their clients known as side holders,” an insider said.
The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) issued a notice to its clients that the scheduled diamond export worth millions to the United Kingdom would not take place on Friday.
The parastatal came under attack from Cosatu following reports that they spent R240 000 for the funeral of its former Chief Executive Officer Louis Selekane.
Selekane was killed in a car accident in May 2009. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi reportedly labelled the expenditure as “pure corruption”.
Vavi reportedly asked: “Is Selekane a president or government minister? Why was he given a state funeral?
He also reportedly urged parliament to get to the bottom of the matter.
Mineral Resources spokesman Bheki Khumalo was not available for comment on the strike action at the parastatal. Diamond Regulator Chief Executive Officer Levy Rapoo confirmed that no diamonds were exported on Friday due to the strike action saying “we did not anticipate the strike action. It is regrettable that the people who are responsible for the exportation of these diamonds are the very same people who are on strike.
“We made an offer to them last night to better the working conditions. It seems to me that they have rejected the offer,” Rapoo said. - Baldwin Ndaba