100 South African Miners Hurt in Strike Violence

Police and security guards fired at crowds of striking black workers at two mines Friday, and more than 100 were injured in the worst violence in South Africa’s 5-day-old strike by gold and coal laborers.

The National Union of Mineworkers, which is directing the nation’s largest walkout against about 50 gold and coal mines and ore-processing plants, accused police of being “trigger-happy” and warned it might retaliate against police and mine owners.

“We will have to revise and change our strategy because the industry has declared war against us,” said James Motlatsi, president of the union, known by its acronym NUM.

Demanding Better Wages

Owners of mines idled by 330,000 black workers demanding better wages blamed the violence on militant strikers who allegedly attacked non-union workers and sabotaged machinery.

“It would appear that the NUM is either unwilling or unable to control their striking workers,” said Peter Gush, spokesman for Anglo American Corp., the $50-million-a-day mining industry’s biggest employer.

Seventy-six miners were wounded in a volley of rubber bullets at the Western Deep Levels gold mine southeast of Johannesburg.

At the Optimum coal mine east of Johannesburg, police said 13 strikers were wounded by shotgun fire and 14 were trampled and injured when about 800 strikers fled gunfire and tear gas late Friday.