JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets on Friday to disperse striking workers blocking the entrance to a mine operated by London-listed DiamondCorp, a police spokesman said.
Police spokesman Stephen Thakeng said four of the workers from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) were injured and 16 arrested for public violence in the latest bout of labour unrest in South Africa's mining sector.
"They were blocking the main entrance of the mine and that was when we started to use rubber bullets," Thakeng said.
AMCU is know for its militancy and earlier this year lead a five-month strike against the world's top platinum producers, the longest in the country's history. The union is now expanding beyond platinum into other sectors such as gold and diamonds.
AMCU workers downed tools on Thursday at DiamondCorp's Lace project in South Africa's Free State province, demanding the company hire two full-time shop stewards at the operation.
DiamondCorp said on Thursday that "a mine development project of less than 260 workers does not require and cannot afford two full-time shop stewards".
The company also said tunneling would be done by non-AMCU members and the installation of a conveyer belt system by contractors was not affected by the strike.
It was not immediately clear how many AMCU members were involved in the stoppage.
Dan Sesuthi, AMCU's regional organiser in the Free State, told Reuters: "We will strike for as long as we have to."
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard and Zandi Shabalala; editing by David Clarke)