Mining group Wescoal announced during a JSE shareholders’ update yesterday that 274 employees had been served with notices of dismissal following violent protests.
This after employees of the Vanggatfontein (VGF) mine in Mpumalanga earlier this month took part in what Wescoal described as “work stoppages, strike action and riots”.
Following a disciplinary hearing, 274 employees were served with notices of dismissal.
According to Wescoal, little to no production is expected at VGF for the next 6-8 weeks.
“We expect that VGF production will be reduced by approximately 15-20% going into 2020,” Wescoal said.
The group has since informed Eskom that coal deliveries will be suspended until further notice.
VGF sold an estimated 2.24 million tons of coal to Eskom in 2018.
Shortage of coal played a contributing role in the recent spate of load-shedding outages.
