Aurora workers' long wait for money
Retrenched packages are yet to be paid by mine liquidators
Former mine workers of Aurora, previously owned by President Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zondwa, are yet to be paid their retrenchment packages.
This is despite confirmation Khulubuse has stuck to a payment agreement plan he reached with the liquidators last September. To date Khulubuse has paid an estimated of R9.5-million in accordance with a settlement reached after six years of legal wrangling.
Khulubuse was ordered to pay R23-million in a period of four-and-half-years. He made his first payment of R5-million, to cover legal fees, nine months ago. Since then he has paid R500 000 monthly.
Khulubuse’s lawyer Ulrich Roux and liquidator Gert de Wet declined to divulge the amount Khulubuse has paid.
Roux and trade union Solidarity’s general secretary Gideon du Plessis, however, confirmed Khulubuse has not skipped payments.
According to calculations by Sowetan, Khulubuse should have by now paid at least R9.5-million.
Aurora was liquidated in October 2011 and its directors were found by the court to have stripped and destroyed the assets of the mine, leading to more than 5 300 workers losing their jobs.
Paul Pelempe, 52, who worked for Aurora from August 2009 until March 2010, said he last met with the liquidators “in September or October” last year.
“It is frustrating that we are yet to be paid. We would like to meet with the liquidators to find out how much is in the kitty so the money can be distributed to the workers.”
“Most of the people who used to work for Aurora currently do not have any source of income, have no food and are struggling to find jobs.”
Sipho Sodela, 54, a father of six has been unemployed since Aurora retrenched him. He and his family survive from money he makes selling vegetables. “Since Khulubuse started making the payments, nobody has ever called us to a meeting. My family is struggling to survive such that I had to pull out my children out of tertiary institutions.”
De Wet said the payments were yet to be made because he has been waiting for the National Union of Mineworkers to submit payslips of registered workers.
“NUM has to come back to the liquidators with regards to the amounts due in terms of the payroll, that has been asked from them since December and nothing has been forthcoming. The liquidators have to draw up a liquidation and distribution account,” said De Wet.
Du Plessis said: “A lot of the workers have left the country and a very large number have not registered the claim. The liquidators told us the workers would start receiving payments in February next year or later this year.”
NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said: “We acknowledge that NUM represented workers at Aurora and we want them to be paid. We are, however, not an employer and don’t have access to the payroll. The liquidator should have access to the Aurora payroll.
“NUM will have mass meetings with workers to see if they can provide payslips so that our members can be paid.”