South African police fire rubber bullets at Diamondcorp strikers

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets on Friday to disperse workers at a mine operated by London-listed DiamondCorp and said members of the hardline AMCU union were involved in the protest. Police spokesman Stephen Thakeng said four of the workers from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union were injured and 16 arrested for public violence in the latest bout of labour unrest in South Africa's mining sector. "They were blocking the main entrance of the mine and that was when we started to use rubber bullets," Thakeng said. AMCU is know for its militancy and earlier this year led a five-month strike against the world's top platinum producers, the longest and costliest in the country's history. The union is now expanding beyond platinum into other sectors such as gold, coal and diamonds. AMCU workers downed tools on Thursday at DiamondCorp's Lace project in South Africa's Free State province, demanding the company hire two full-time shop stewards at the operation. DiamondCorp said on Thursday that "a mine development project of less than 260 workers does not require and cannot afford two full-time shop stewards". Chief executive Paul Loundon told Reuters: "We are not going to change our attitude because there is no mine with less than 260 employees that has full-time shop stewards. And we are not going to be the first." AMCU represents more than half of employees at the mine, he said. The company said tunneling would be done by non-AMCU members and the installation of a conveyer belt system by contractors was not affected by the strike. It was not immediately clear how many AMCU members were involved in the stoppage. Dan Sesuthi, AMCU's regional organiser in the Free State, told Reuters: "We will strike for as long as we have to."