Deputy President Jacob Zuma and the Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Jose Maria Neves, visit the Apartheid Museum (above)

Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday congratulated the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and mining houses for striking a wage deal that averted what could have been a biggest strike in the mining industry in 16 years. In a statement released in Pretoria, Mdladlana said that if the parties had failed to find a solution and the strike proceeded, everyone would have lost.

"Workers would have lost wages, management would have lost profits and government would have lost some revenue", said Mdladlana. "The way the settlement was reached is an unequivocal vindication of the efficacy of our labour market policies and institutions; the maturation of social dialogue in our country and the commitment of organised labour and captains of industry to finding sustainable solutions to intractable problems," he added. Mdladlana also challenged other sectors experiencing similar difficulties to engage in dialogue until mutually acceptable solutions were found. His comments came after an eleventh hour settlement between NUM and the Chamber of Mines on Sunday. Only "one of two" mines experienced problems on Sunday night after a last minute agreement preventing a massive strike on gold mines, the SA Chamber of Mines' chief negotiator, Frans Barker, said on Monday. The strike was called off after the majority of the union's 100,000 members had voted to accept a revised offer of a 10 percent wage increase across the board.