South African miners strike over safety

THIS YEAR over 200 miners were killed in South Africa's gold, platinum and diamond mines. Last year the figure was 199. On 4 December, over 200,000 miners went on the first one-day strike in protest at shocking safety levels.

The miners' union, the National Union of Mineworkers, which has 270,000 members, planned to march on the employers' federation's headquarters to demand that the bosses "invest in safety in the same way they invest in production". Some of the miners' placards read "Blood-dripped profit is the bosses' luxury".