Governments to discuss mine workers’ futures

Mozambique and South Africa are to finalise an agreement aimed at resolving problems affecting Mozambicans working in South African mines, the local official news agency AIM reported on Thursday. The countries would discuss the agreement next week during a visit to Maputo by South African Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, the report said.

According to the report, the meeting was recommended by Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki. Mdladlana was quoted as saying that both countries were determined to resolve the issue.

On the table for discussion was the retrenchment of some 2,500 Mozambican miners from the EPRM mine on the outskirts of Johannesburg nearly two years ago, Mdladlana said. He said it had been decided at a meeting in Pretoria in April that the miners should be involved in a programme that would enable their economic reintegration. “We’re under pressure from the two heads of state in order to find a rapid solution to this problem,” he was quoted as saying.