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17 July, 2026The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is demanding De Beers exhaust alternatives before retrenching 1214 workers at Venetia mine, which the company plans to close for two years.
Venetia is South Africa’s largest diamond mine, producing roughly four-fifths of the country’s output. On 14 July, De Beers and its local sales arm, De Beers Sightholder Sales South Africa (DBSSSA), issued a Section 189A notice announcing the two-year production pause. NUM, an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, is fighting the move, calling it a devastating blow to workers, families and the communities built around the mine in Limpopo province.
Section 189A of the Labour Relations Act requires employers to consult formally with unions before large-scale retrenchments. NUM says De Beers is treating this as a formality rather than genuine negotiation, presenting a downturn it has long known about as a sudden emergency.
Masibulele Naki, NUM’s national health and safety secretary and chief negotiator for the diamond sector, said jobs should not be sacrificed whenever a company comes under economic pressure and that section 189A exists to explore alternatives, not rubber-stamp a decision already made.
Alternatives on the table
NUM wants De Beers and DBSSSA to exhaust several measures before cutting jobs: retraining and upskilling, temporary job-preservation arrangements, cuts to non-essential expenditure and a review of executive and management costs. The union argues workers’ pay is not the source of the company’s difficulties, and should not be sacrificed to protect profits and executive benefits.
NUM also suspects the production pause could become cover for replacing permanent workers with cheaper, less unionized contract labour once operations resume — a tactic increasingly used by mining companies to cut costs.
NUM says it will participate fully in the statutory consultation while calling on the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and the Department of Employment and Labour to intervene.
“Workers’ wages, jobs and livelihoods cannot become the first target whenever management seeks to cut costs,” said Masibulele Naki.
Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa, said:
“Diamond market pressures cannot be used to push workers into poverty. Venetia’s workers deserve a fair process that protects their livelihoods.”
Diamond market under pressure
The global diamond industry faces an acute structural crisis. Between 2015 and 2025 the natural diamond market fell 16 per cent in volume and 33 per cent in value, driven by a flood of cheaper lab-grown diamonds mass-produced in China and India; natural diamond prices have fallen roughly 30 per cent since 2022. Industry responses, including the Luanda Accord’s coordinated marketing fund and calls for mandatory “synthetic” labelling, have yet to stop the decline.
The Luanda Accord was signed on 18 June 2025 in Angola’s capital by a coalition of African producer governments — Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo — alongside De Beers, the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. Signatories commit to allocating 1 per cent of annual rough diamond sales revenue to the Natural Diamond Council to fund a global marketing campaign for natural diamonds.