WATCH: Owethu miners stage underground sit-in for salaries

Sixty-three mineworkers are currently in the throes of a protest over salaries, and have staged a sit-in at Owethu Mine near Hlobane in KwaZulu-Natal, reports Vryheid Herald.

The disgruntled workers claimed they had not been paid since September, and would not be moved until they had received their salaries in full from new mine-owner Azanda Sokhela, who took over the mine on September 3.

“He says it is not his problem,” claimed a mineworker and spokesperson for the group, known as Xulu. “We can do what we want to do.” When asked if Sokhela had explained the reasons behind the short payment, Xulu stated, “He doesn’t say anything. He ignores…”

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According to Sokhela, however, September salaries were paid in full. November’s salaries were not paid in full due to cash flow problems, a situation that he was currently working on rectifying.

“When I bought the mine, I did so from my own pocket,” he claimed. “There are no investors and it is a costly process. I have explained to the workers, those who would listen, that I am working on a solution to ensure that their outstanding money will be paid next Wednesday. They need to be patient…”

Sokhela’s words bear no weight on the protesting employees, who have taken to voicing their outrage by remaining underground, despite risking their own safety. Xulu and his colleagues remain doubtful as to the truthfulness of this statement.

“I am one hundred percent sure that he is lying,” he stated. “He promised to pay us last week Tuesday, then he postponed that to this Tuesday. After that, he came with this story. He’s lying… The workers say that Mr Sokhela must come with a medical exit, so that we can leave him in peace…”

For those unfamiliar with the term, an exit medical examination is a compulsory medical examination to be arranged by the employer and carried out by an occupational medical practitioner to establish the presence or absence of any possible occupational disease or illness in terminated employees, and must be carried out before, or within 30 days after, termination of employment.

Sokhela maintains that termination is not on the cards, and that he is willing to keep all of the staff on when the mine reopens in January.

“There will be no retrenchments,” he stated, in response to Xulu’s claims that he told the workers to leave the mine.

“The mine is currently closed. There is no power,” he elaborated. “It is not safe for the workers to be down there at this time. I said that they need to leave the premises … physically vacate the mine. At this point, they are actually trespassing. At no point have I spoken of retrenchment.”

“We will leave the mine when Sokhela pays us,” concluded Xulu. “No matter if that is Wednesday or whenever … we will stay here until we get our rights…”

The sit-in at Owethu Mine is currently on its second day.

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