* Warrant linked to corruption probe by police
* Golds Fields strike to end
* AngloGold latest victim of wildcat strikes
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 21 (Reuters) - South African authorities
have issued an arrest warrant for ANC renegade Julius Malema,
President Jacob Zuma's most vocal critic and a key backer of
wildcat miner strikes that spread on Friday to bullion producer
Anglogold Ashanti.
The former Youth League leader, who was expelled from the
ruling African National Congress in April for indiscipline, was
liaising with police about his appearance in court next week,
his lawyer, Nicqui Galaktiou, told Reuters.
"We are busy arranging Mr. Malema's appearance next week,"
she said. "We don't have a confirmed date yet. We have not seen
the warrant of arrest. We don't know what the charges are. He
won't be jailed."
She added that the charges stemmed from an investigation by
the police's elite Hawks detective division, which has been
probing 31-year-old Malema for alleged corruption relating to
the award of government contracts in his native Limpopo
province.
South Africa's City Press newspaper said Malema, who has
addressed crowds of strikers and called for nationwide
industrial action, was facing charges of fraud, money laundering
and corruption.
Malema has unnerved investors by calling for the
nationalisation of mines in the world's top platinum producer.
The wave of wildcat strikes started with a mass walkout at
Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine in early August, and
culminated a week later when police killed 34 striking miners,
the deadliest security incident since the 1994 end of apartheid.
The unrest hit AngloGold on Friday when workers downed tools
at its Kopanang mine in Free State province.
The mine has 5,000 workers and the strikers had not yet
communicated their demands, company spokesman Alan Fine said. It
only accounts for about 4 percent of the group's global output.
RETURN TO WORK
A spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said
the strikers wanted a wage of 12,500 rand ($1,500) a month,
mirroring demands at other mines.
This is about triple the amount earned as basic pay at the
bottom end of the wage scale in the industry.
Lonmin said a wage settlement at Marikana this week would
add 14 percent to its wage bill from Oct. 1, a huge strain on a
company battling with an already shaky balance sheet and rising
costs on other fronts.
Workers at the world's top platinum producer Anglo American
Platinum are also on strike over pay, and there are
concerns about more wildcat action.
But Gold Fields, the world's fourth largest bullion
producer, said on Friday an illegal strike by 15,000 workers at
its KDC West operation would end after the weekend though the
details, worked out by union bosses with the rank and file, have
not emerged.
"We have just had a word from the National Union of
Mineworkers leadership that they had reached agreement with the
striking workers at KDC West to return to work at the end of the
long weekend with the start of the morning shift on Tuesday,"
spokesman Willie Jacobsz told Reuters.
Gold Fields was losing 1,400 ounces a day in output but only
around 15 percent of its production came from those operations
and so it could tough out a strike in a way that Lonmin, which
was brought to a complete standstill, could not.
Chief executive Nick Holland told Reuters earlier this week
that he would not entertain the wage hikes the strikers were
also pressing for.
The strikers' demands included the resignation of the local
branch leaderhip of the NUM.
Much of the labour strife rocking the South African mining
sector has its roots in a turf war between the dominant NUM and
the more militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction
Union (AMCU).
AMCU has tapped into a swelling vein of discontent with the
NUM, which is seen by some as out of touch and too closely
linked to the ANC government.
