ABOUT 40,000 of the black miners on strike in South Africa work for Gold Fields of South Africa. This operates some of the most productive goldmines in the coun try and is part of a British mining investment group, Consolidated Gold Fields.
Gold Fields of South Africa has the reputation of paying the lowest wages in the industry, despite the fact that it can produce gold at $1ll an ounce gold's current market price is $333 an ounce.
Conditions in Gold Fields mines notoriously ocTe At the highly profitable Kloof WHIC where gold is produced at sos an ounce, workers complain that no ceilings exist in the rooms making them unbearably hot in summer and cold in winter. Black workers are forced to accept appalling living con- bad food, overcharging by white shops, and continual abuse from white miners.
tributes about half of Con- Gold Fields COLsolidated Gold Fields' profits, and is linked to the * a a on sake in the Anglo-American - which has company.
Consolidated Gold Fields has justified its position in Its negotiations with the South African NUM by claiming that there are only 74 black members at its plain how 13,000 workers KOOL engaged Februasy rends widespread DOVCOLL I year Some observers believe that Alrican Chamber of Mines has deliberately picked Gold Fields and the other two companies to try and defeat at leashe par.