There is tension in the mining sector as Anglo American Platinum prepares to unveil its job cuts plan on Friday. Amplats is expected to cut down on the number of jobs it intended to slash as it tries to balance out cost cuts and the threat of labour unrest.

The company had planned to cut 14 000 jobs and mothball two mines to pull back to profit.

Mining minister, Suzan Shabangu, furiously accused the company of betrayal. Amplats has been in talks with the government for months to hammer out the agreed plan.

Industry sources say the final plan would be pared back, with as few as 5 000 jobs cut.

The talks have been tough, but Amplats, which declined to comment on Thursday, has promised the market there will be a final outcome this week.

At the talks have been tough, but Amplats, which declined to comment on Thursday, has promised the market there will be a final outcome this week.

Mathunjwa also told a media briefing the AMCU would submit its wage demands to individual platinum companies in two weeks’ time but did not say what workers would push for

At the entrance to the Khuseleka operations – one of two mines near the platinum belt city of Rustenburg slated for closure – workers waited to hear their fate on a cool autumn day.

“We are all waiting to hear who is losing their job and who is keeping it,” a rockdriller from the Eastern Cape province, where much of the mine workforce is drawn from, told Reuters as he waited for a company bus to take him home after his shift.

He and others declined to have their names published. “Everyone is anxious about who will go and who will be left,” said another, who supports seven people on his salary, including his parents and a sister in university.

The average South African mineworker has eight dependants, so the social consequences of the lay-offs in a country with a jobless rate of over 25% will be far reaching.

Militant workers have signalled they will launch protest strikes, even if the job cuts fall far short of the initial target. Social tensions are running high after violence rooted in a labour turf war killed more than 50 people last year and sparked illegal strikes that hit production.

For Amplats, reining in costs and cutting production to such an extent that it lifts the price of platinum, used for emissions-capping catalytic converters in motor vehicles, is absolutely crucial after it fell into a loss last year.

“From the point of view of Amplats itself, both numbers will be critical; how many ounces will you produce, but also how many people, because that impacts on the cost base,” said Alison Turner, an analyst at Panmure Gordon.

But AMCU leaders in Johannesburg said they would not endorse any illegal protest actions or strikes.

“We are not supporting anything like that. AMCU does not vouch for unprotected (illegal) industrial action,” AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa said.

Militant workers have signalled they will launch protest strikes even if the job cuts fall far short of the initial target. They say even a scaled back proposal to cut 5,000 or so jobs would be seen as too many.

Mathunjwa also told a media briefing the AMCU would submit its wage demands to individual platinum companies in two weeks’ time but did not say what workers would push for. Additional reporting by Reuters