South African miner DRDGold's High Court application for the provisional liquidation of its ailing North West Operations today has drawn strong reaction from trade unions.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) lashed out at the group, saying the application for liquidation “is no surprise”, and added that the announcement “only consolidates our viewpoint that the management of DRDGold is not fit to run these operations”.

The union reiterated its view that the North West Operations should be taken over by a South African-focused entity.

“We have said it time and again that DRDGold is not interested in the South African operations. It is more interested in its Australian operations and will only run down the South African operations. It is time that someone else takes over these mines and runs them efficiently and effectively, because having this company doesn't help employees and the country at large. In fact, if we could, we would have sold DRDGold a long time ago,” NUM general-secretary Gwede Mantashe said in a statement.

The union has recently also called for DRDGold's mining licence to be taken away by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), charging that the company “is a disgrace to the mining industry, in general, and gives it a very bad image, especially against the backdrop of the shared notion of developing mining into a sunrise industry”.

“We are actually not surprised by this turn of events at DRDGold. We can only hope that the alarm bell we sounded to the DME earlier on is ringing loud and clear enough for them now. More jobs are now at stake, thereby increasing poverty and deprivation. We will stand by our members and all workers at DRDGold during this trying period,” Mantashe stated.

The Solidarity trade union said it was informed of the liquidation application after workers arrived at the Hartbeesfontein and Buffelsfontein mines today and found the gates locked.

It is understood that, should DRDGold's application be successful, the High Court will appoint liquidators to perform a 45-day investigation of the operations, and workers have been instructed not to come to work for the duration of the process.

Solidarity said that only essential services, which include the Duff Scott Hospital, emergency services and workers responsible for pumping water out of the underground areas, would be allowed to work.

The union also stated that DRDGold has given an assurance that workers would receive their salaries at the end of the month. No guarantee could be given, however, that workers would be compensated for accumulated benefits.

“Solidarity had a meeting with DRDGold on March 3. At the time, Solidarity was asked to assist DRDGold during the difficult financial time being that was being experienced by the group. The trade union was told that DRDGold had already suffered losses amounting to R270-million,” Reint Dykema, spokesperson for Solidarity Mining, said.

“On the same day, however, Section 189 (A) notices were served on the entire labour force of DRDGold's North West activities, namely the Hartbeesfontein and Buffelsfontein mines.”

The notices informed 6 513 workers that their employment was under threat. Two weeks ago, on March 9, activities were further disrupted by an earth tremor that caused extensive damage to the No 5 shaft of Hartbeesfontein mine. More seismic activity also caused considerable damage to the No 2 shaft.

“The liquidation plans will come as a big blow to the community of Stilfontein,” the union commented.