Union hits back at De Beers amid retrenchment fears

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has issued a strongly worded statement against De Beers after the diamond producer announced plans to pause production at its Venetia Mine in Limpopo for two years.

This is part of efforts to save cash as the miner battles against a changing market.

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The move, affecting the country’s biggest diamond mine, includes the issuing of a Section 189A notice – threatening the livelihoods of more than 1 100 permanent employees at De Beers and a further 80 at De Beers Sightholder Sales South Africa (DBSSSA), the local arm responsible for the sale and beneficiation of rough diamonds for authorised bulk buyers.

“The NUM views this announcement as a devastating blow to workers, their families and the communities that depend on Venetia Mine and DBSSSA for survival,” the union’s diamond sector chief negotiator Masibulele Naki said on Tuesday.

“In total, 1 214 workers now face retrenchment.”

Naki said NUM, the majority union at De Beers, is deeply disturbed by how management has communicated its decision, attempting to portray it as “a sudden and unavoidable crisis” when the company has long been aware of the challenges facing the diamond industry.

De Beers has not confirmed how many jobs could ultimately be affected.

“Workers cannot be treated as disposable tools that are discarded whenever companies face economic pressures,” Naki added, suggesting there was no prior attempt to engage with union leaders on the decision before moving ahead with the proces.

The union believes the company has a responsibility to exhaust all possible alternatives before considering retrenchments.

“The salaries of workers are not the cause of the current difficulties facing the company. Therefore, workers’ wages, jobs and livelihoods cannot become the first target whenever management seeks to reduce costs.”

The union has called on De Beers to urgently consider viable alternatives, including:

• Retraining and upskilling programmes;
• Temporary job preservation measures;
• Reducing non-essential expenditure; and
• Reviewing executive and management costs.

It has also urged the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, the Department of Employment and Labour, and organised labour to intervene to help prevent large-scale job losses.

“The union will participate fully in the consultation process and will mobilise all available organisational, legal and collective bargaining resources to defend our members,” Naki said.

“NUM will not stand by while workers are sacrificed for corporate convenience.”

The mine accounts for 40% of South Africa’s annual diamond production.

Restructuring

Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with a strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in areas it believes will create the most value.

So far, it estimates that more than $100 million (around R1.6 billion at the current rate of exchange) of annual overhead costs have been cut down from the business.

Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns.

It said global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, with sales through US independent jewellers continuing to improve into the first quarter of 2026, driven by higher-value diamonds.

On the supply side, it said global rough diamond production is declining, with several producers closing mines during 2026.

“Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors,” De Beers said.

The proposed action at Venetia mine follows the decision earlier this year to suspend the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at its Gahcho Kué mine in Canada.

Read: De Beers makes deep diamond price cuts for shrinking buyers club