Community members from the Eskhaleni, Mnyathi, Mbilana, Hlobane and Coronation areas are demanding certain services from the Vaalkrantz Colliery / Bayete Mining Resources.
About 140 members took their grievances to the mine to hand over a memorandum to the mine manager on Friday. The memo stated that the Vaalkrantz Mine started its operation in July 2017 when it took over Keaton Energy. Then all services that were provided by Keaton were put to a stop. It also states that community members have waited a long period of time for the mine to respond to their demands.
These are some of the demands: – They want to be informed of any job opportunities / posts in the Mnyathi, Eskhaleni, Mbilana, Draaifontein, Hlobane and Coronation area; – They demand the mine to grade all the sports ground access roads; – Members further demand the mine to pay workers on time and they demand to know how much, according to SLP, is budgeted to uplift the local communities; – Community members also demand the mine to put aside the budget to take their children to universities; – They demand dry cleaners and other contracts that are available in the mine, like logistics and front-end loaders.
Roy Mokoena, who is the convener of the protest, said, “We had a very peaceful and well-organised protest on Friday, as there were officials from the SAPS and the Traffic Department. It started at 10:00 and ended at 13:00. There wasn’t any commotion between the two parties, hence the mine manager received the memorandum and we want answers within seven working days.”
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