S. Africa Firm Says It Has Anti-Riot Gas at Mine

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  The Anglo American Corp., South Africa’s giant mining and industrial conglomerate, acknowledged Sunday that it has equipped one of its gold-mine complexes with a system that could be used to tear-gas rioting miners.

Peter Gush, chairman of Anglo American’s gold and uranium division, said the system was installed at Western Deep Levels Gold Mine, 50 miles southwest of Johannesburg, after serious riots in 1974 and 1975 when 15 black miners were killed in fierce tribal fighting.

Used once in 1975, the system consists of canisters of tear gas hung in the mine’s liquor stores, kitchens and some administration offices with remote controls that allow security officials to release the gas if rioters attempt to move into these areas.

The mine has about 12,000 workers, most of them black.

Although Anglo American described the system as “a normal riot control procedure, using tear gas as the first line of defense,” the company, which prides itself on being one of South Africa’s most progressive employers, was embarrassed by the disclosure and the suggestions that it brought of a readiness to suppress protest.

Contingency Action

“People’s lives were at risk, a great deal of property was being destroyed or damaged and the mine was being shut down,” a company spokesman said. “Something had to be done to protect the areas most under attack, and this system was installed.

“It has to be seen in the context of ending those tribal fights, and it should be recalled that it has not been used for the past decade, however serious the tribal fighting or the unrest we have had.”

Anglo-American said the tear gas system was installed only at Western Deep Levels Gold Mine, the world’s deepest, and probably has been at least partially dismantled over the years.

“Fighting between miners from different tribes has decreased steadily in both frequency and intensity over the past decade as the level of education has risen and as miners associate more with those with whom they work rather than just those from the same tribe,” the spokesman said,

South African mines generally maintain law and order with large, well-equipped security forces and call on the police only if life-threatening trouble arises.