Aurora damaged many lives

Former workers of the liquidated Pamodzi Gold Mine weren’t paid in full after Aurora took over management of the mine and were then told to stay at home without any warning in May 2011.

Khulubuse Zuma, Zondwa Mandela, Thulani Ngubane and the Bhana family will appear in the North Gauteng High Court on March 23 as they are allegedly responsible for having too much debt by being negligent and dishonest with Aurora’s money.

Zuma’s application to challenge the R1.5-billion which Pamodzi liquidators claimed against him was dismissed in court last week.

Derek Douglas (54) worked at this mine from 1983, when it was still named Grootvlei mine, until May 2011 when they were all dismissed.

Douglas was a General Foreman of Winders when Aurora was put in place by the liquidators in 2009.

“Between March 2010 and May 2011 we only received a percentage of our salaries,” he says. “and then it was 50% and sometimes even 25%.”

He adds that not long after Aurora took over, the workers stopped receiving payslips and were handed the percentage of their salary in cash.

“They owe me over R200 000.”

He adds that the Provident Fund was deducted from their salary every month, but was never paid into another account.

“It just disappeared and no one knows what happened to that money.”

Douglas explains how no one knew what was going on when they were told to stay at home as there has been no communication from Aurora’s side since that day.

“We didn’t know if we could look for other work or whether we are going back there,” he says.

“I was out of work for around four months before I started working somewhere else as an electrician.”

He further explains how all his debt could not be paid and other priorities he had couldn’t be dealt with due to lack of funds.

“I personally knew one person who committed suicide as a result of Aurora’s actions, it all just became too much for him.”

He adds that Aurora has damaged the lives of many people and still have not accounted for any of their actions.