The consultation machinery of South African labour law is now grinding into motion at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Kwezi shaft, where management has formally opened a Section 189A process tied to the operation’s flagging economics. That legal pathway, embedded in the country’s labour legislation, typically comes into play when employers are weighing major operational overhauls or workforce reductions driven by business requirements.
What makes this particular case notable is the scale of the human impact. Roughly 781 permanent employees stand to be affected by whatever emerges from the talks, alongside another 333 contract workers supplied through external partners at the site. Those numbers give some sense of how deeply the proposed changes could cut into the local workforce.
While this consultation unfolds in South Africa, employers everywhere face their own duties when
Production Numbers Tell a Modest Story
The shaft’s output figures for the current year help explain why management has trained its sights on this particular asset. During the first six months of 2026, Kwezi produced 20,658 4E ounces — a volume that represents under 3 percent of Sibanye-Stillwater’s total South African platinum group metals production.
That relatively small contribution, weighed against the fixed costs of keeping the operation running, has made the site’s viability a growing concern within the company. The financial record backs up that worry. In 2024, the shaft posted a loss of 208 million rand. A year later, in 2025, the red ink had thinned to 91 million rand — still a substantial shortfall, even if the trajectory points in the right direction.
What the Consultation Process Is Meant to Achieve
Under the Section 189A framework, the company is obligated to sit down with unions and worker representatives to explore options before any final decisions are locked in. These discussions typically revolve around whether redundancies can be avoided altogether, or at least softened through socially responsible measures.
Sibanye-Stillwater has framed the exercise as part of a broader effort to secure the long-term health of its South African PGM portfolio. The company says operational discipline is necessary to ensure stability going forward, and that identifying unprofitable production capacity is part of that equation.
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What remains genuinely open at this stage is the outcome. Whether the process ends in job cuts, a partial shutdown of facilities, or some other arrangement will depend on how the structured dialogue unfolds in the coming weeks. For the workers and contractors whose livelihoods hang in the balance, the stakes could hardly be higher.
