The sound of the hammer hitting the chisel rings out, echoing from the high walls of the excavation.
The hammer rises, and falls. With a crunch a big block of coal is separated from a large seam that was uncovered by the miners only days before.
A group of women, all in their early fifties to late sixties, move forward with shovels and pickaxes. With surprising vigour they begin to break the big block into smaller pieces. Buckets are filled and moved along a chain of women, hand by hand. The buckets are emptied, and filled again.
Day after day, the miners dig. They search for a loaf of bread, a litre of milk. They dig for mealie meal and rice. They search for black gold.
Thabile Manana is a 57-year-old woman who works in an illegal mine in oSizweni to provide for her family. She swings a pickaxe with fervour, harder and faster than most young men would.
Coal dust mixes with the sweat on her brow and cheeks. A pair of rubber gloves stops the black dust from staining her hands.
After her work with the pickaxe is done, she grabs a shovel, scooping the broken coal into buckets. The buckets are emptied on a mound near two other women who are sorting the clumps by size.
For R50, you can buy a full wheelbarrow of coal.
This mine in oSizweni was reportedly started in the early 1960s, as a way for residents to make money from the land to provide for their families. Today, the mine covers a vast expanse of eroded quarries and holes surrounding a local high school.
Mrs Manana works on the surface with a group of other women and men. Underneath their feet, tunnels stretch in every direction, dug in aid of producing more coal. The workers told journalists that it would not ‘be safe’ to go underground.
In the middle of it all stands Mzamo High School, with approximately 800 pupils. The school is in grave peril of sinking below the earth, as the tunnels run directly underneath the buildings. Cracks dot the walls here and there, while the foundation has visibly sunk a few inches.
On October 17, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources met with entities of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) as well as Mintek, the Council for Geoscience and the Mine Health Council.
The portfolio committee is ‘concerned about the scale of illegal coal mining’ in oSizweni.
During the meeting, committee chairperson, Sahlulele Luzipo asked about the measures that have been put in place to effectively deal with the illegal operation, and what resources would be needed.
According to a statement issued by the committee, Mintek was tasked with building partnerships with relevant stakeholders and DMR in order to come up with a holistic intervention that would provide a solution to illegal coal mining.
“This practice is a serious problem in oSizweni, considering that these illegal miners are digging beneath one of the community schools and in so doing they put the safety of pupils and staff members at risk,” said Mr Luzipo.
Bertina Mazibuko, a 72-year-old grandmother, works at the mine everyday. Her hands are hard and blackened by the coal. She smiles and laughs with her companion, as their dull work of sorting the coal into piles of different sizes continues.
“I grew up on the farm,” said Ms Mazibuko in Afrikaans, pointing to a general direction over her right shoulder. “That’s where I learnt to speak Afrikaans.”
She smiles when asked if she would mind a photograph being taken.
“Ja, why not,” she laughs. “I come every day and sort the coal. The big pieces people come with wheelbarrows and take it. The smaller pieces I take home in bags and give to my family and neighbours, the people I look after. We use it to cook and to make fire to stay warm in the winter.”
While the mine poses a very real threat to the pupils and people living in the area, it remains the only source of income for many. For Ms Mazibuko, it is the commodity that puts ood on her table and the tables of her children and grandchildren.
Follow us as we delve into the depths of the mine and the lives of the people who benefit and those who suffer from the mine operation, in a six part series.
