S.Africa miners hold bosses hostage over contracts

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Some 500 contract workers at Eastern Platinum's mine in South Africa have been holding seven supervisors hostage underground since Thursday, the company said in a statement on Friday.

The miners at the Crocodile River mine demand to be employed permanently, a promise they say they were given by management, a local radio station reported. They were notified early on Thursday that management would renege on that promise, it said.

Eastplats said their demands were in contradiction of agreements in place.

"This demand and associated illegal action is not supported by Eastplats, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), or by the mining contractors involved," it said.

Eastplats said the workers have staged a "sit-in" in an underground area close to the entrance to the mine and have refused to leave the premises. The company said it had removed all other employees from underground.

Mining contractors are in the process of obtaining a court interdict which will require their employees to stop the illegal strike action, will enforce the release of those detained and will ask those striking to vacate the underground areas, Eastplats said.