Solidarity added its voice to that of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), who today said that an agreement of this nature could not be made without the consent of the employees. “Organised labour will not allow an agreement that could affect the job security of several thousand employees,” Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said today.

“The economy is in the midst of a recession and more than 55 000 jobs have already been lost. Of these, 19 000 were at Anglo Platinum, one of Anglo American’s affiliates. Employees do not want to get the bad end of the stick when shareholders get up to clever tricks and there is the possibility of huge job loss,” Kleynhans said.

“There are mechanisms that organised labour can use to prevent the takeover. In the short term, the only winners in this type of takeover are the bankers and lawyers. In addition, the company runs the risk of severely damaging its share price in the long run if their dirty laundry is aired in public,” Kleynhans warned.

“The parties will benefit from looking at the lessons of Harmony’s failed takeover of GoldFields. Today, five years after the fiasco, the share price has still not recovered. After the incident, Harmony let 10 000 of their employees go in order to save its operations. In the end, the employees were the big losers,” Kleynhans added.