S. African Union Calls 1-Day Halt Over Mine Deaths

The country’s largest black miners’ union asked its 250,000 members on Friday to stop work for one day on Oct. 1 to mourn 177 miners killed a mile underground in a gold mine fire this week.

The National Union of Mineworkers also charged that the owners of Kinross Gold Mine had refused to let mining experts from Britain, West Germany and Sweden visit the scene of Tuesday’s fire, 65 miles east-southeast of Johannesburg.

However, Carl Netscher, senior director of General Union Mining Corp.’s mining division, said he knew of no such request.

The union’s general secretary, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the Chamber of Mines, the industry association, had been asked to approve the one-day work stoppage Oct. 1 at all gold and coal mines, which employ more than 600,000 workers.

If the chamber refuses, Ramaphosa said, mine union members will strike for the day without permission. He said other unions in the 500,000-member Congress of South African Trade Unions will be asked to join the action.

Of the 177 miners who died at Kinross, 172 were black and five were white.