Many of the 12,000 miners sacked by Anglo American Platinum in South Africa were expected to gather to protest their dismissal and mourn a colleague killed in clashes with police.
Striking miners were to meet in a stadium in the northern town of Rustenburg, to discuss how to respond to the mass dismissal by the world’s largest platinum producer.
Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Marikana a union branch leader at a different mine was shot dead Friday evening, his union said.
“A branch secretary of the union at Western Platinum was shot and killed at his house in Marikana this (Friday) evening,” said National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka in a statement.
Unions have come under fire as workers reject the traditional negotiation structures and accuse their guilds of conniving with mine managers.
Around 28,000 Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) workers have been on a wildcat strike for three weeks at the firm’s sprawling facilities in Rustenburg, which account for around a quarter of world platinum production.
Amplats on Friday said the miners failed to appear before disciplinary hearings “and have therefore been dismissed in their absence.”
It is the latest crisis to hit South Africa’s vital minerals sector, which has been crippled by a wave of violent disputes over miners’ pay since August.
The company said the strike had so far cost 700 million rand ($80 million, 60 million euros) in lost revenue.
“Despite the company’s repeated calls for employees to return to work, we have continued to experience attendance levels of less than 20 percent,” Amplats said in a statement.
Workers, some of whom received text messages from Amplats informing them of the news, reacted with a mixture of shock and defiance.
“If they fired us, no problem,” said Claudio, aged 37, from Mozambique. “We are going to market ourselves somewhere else.”
Others were more circumspect. “Now what is going to happen?” asked a worried 21-year-old miner from the eastern province of Mpumalanga, who had not gone to work because of the threat of violence from colleagues.
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