South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) may demand pay increases of up to 100 percent for its lowest paid members, it emerged on Thursday.

This demand would be made in forthcoming salary discussions in the gold, coal and diamond sectors.

Frans Baleni, the Secretary General of the ANC-aligned NUM, also told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference called by NUM to draft its 2015 wage demands that he was hoping wage talks in the gold sector would begin in late April or early May. It seems the ANC-aligned NUM has finally decided to be more active in issues affecting South Africans.

This could have been informed by the fact that many of its members have defected to its rival union, the militant Association of Metalworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), accusing NUM of being a lame duck.

Last week, NUM said it would reject any efforts by cash-strapped power utility Eskom to sell assets, especially its finance company which helps provide home loans to employees.

“The NUM will never support any decision that will affect its members and other employees at the company,” NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said.

Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit that asset sales were being considered as a way to raise capital.

With these asset sales, the government wants to raise R23 billion to rescue the struggling Eskom.

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