PHALABORWA: Unforgiving mood during miners’ memorial service

An unforgiving mood filled the memorial service tent on Thursday, July 19, during the memorial service for the six miners who died in a fire on Sunday, July 15, at the Palabora copper mine.

Relatives of the deceased miners spoke of the deprivation they would face raising the children of the deceased and also the hardships they were facing as PMC were not availing themselves to them.

Read: PMC release photos of miners who died in Sunday’s tragic accident

“We are not talking about money, we need physical support because you [PMC] came once and you left. Since then you do not communicate well with us as the affected families,” said Jerry Malatji, the brother of the late Elliot Maake.

He also said that the lack of communication from PMC leaves his family suspicious of certain occurrences.

“Even the death of my brother, we did not hear about from PMC directly. “What we have learned is that the there was no water in the refuge chamber and a mine should have water at all times,” said Jerry Malatji as the union members cheered him on.

Read: Breaking: PMC to stop all conveyor belts after tragic mine accident

“We are told that those who died perished in the refuge chamber and this chamber should be the best resort if something was to happen inside the mine. We are also told that the chamber should be able to sustain miners for a long time if something was to happen but this one did not,” said Malatji. “We want to know what my brother’s last words from underground were before he died,” said Malatji.

Jerry Malatji said his brother Elliot Maake had left behind three young children and an unemployed wife. “It will be difficult for us to raise the children of my late brother.

“He was a breadwinner and now that he is gone his kids are going to suffer. The mine must do something to ensure continuity in his family,” said Malatji. He also accused the mine of not caring to arrange counselling for the bereaved families, while questioning the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. “We want to know how the deaths occurred inside the refuge bay, we are not happy and we want justice to be done,” he said.

Read: Malema: Palabora miners died because bosses ‘don’t care’

“I feel I let my son down by allowing him to come and work here, and it is not nice to come and stand here in front of Phalaborwa and throw PMC with these allegations. Shaun loved his job and even if they called him at 03:00 he would always go to work,” said Kedibone Mashigo, the mother of Shaun.

AMCU president, Joseph Mathunjwa said that the union blames the mine but also blames the government because they hold the keys to the safety of the miners and they are taking their time to amend the mine health and safety act.

Read: PHALABORWA: Man on duty dies at mine

“What is happening now [the death of miners around South Africa] is becoming a culture, we have returned from Stillwaters mine where miners died due to heat and we are here again because of the same thing,” said Mathunjwa. He also said that the government does not want to amend the Health and Safety Act because it is a capitalist government.

“We will apply to march and we are going to march until the Safety Act is amended,” Mathunjwa told the PHALABORWA HERALD. He also said that the government’s direct interest of foreign investors comes before the lives of the miners.

According to the mine general manager, Keith Mathole, he said that he could understand how the families feel and that they are hurt.

“What PMC did was that it instructed the human resource team to go through the villages in all the six families to collect them and bring them closer to the incident and we explained to them what had happened in terms of the shutdown of the conveyor belt,” said Keith Mathole. He also said that PMC had professionals to provide psychiatric support to the families.