‘It is not safe here, you could be shot’

ONE year after the killings at Marikana, little has changed. Bitterness and fear remain. Workers believe their colleagues died for nothing and that their living conditions are no better.

“Our pay is still the same as last year,” said rock-drill operator Sthembiso Sthabane, 54, who lives in Lonmin’s Wonderkop hostel. “Our blood was spilt in vain and we are working as hard as ever. People are still dying here. It is very bad.”

Wearing the T-shirt of the National Council of Trade Unions, to which Amcu is affiliated, he added: “Someone who works on the mines doesn’t last long. We suffer from TB and other diseases and leave orphans, and no one cares about them when we are gone. Yet these people [mine management] make a fortune out of this.”

On the opposing side of the labour conflict, workers who belong to the National Union of Mineworkers said they were living in fear.

On Monday, NUM members at Lonmin’s Karee shaft approached management to demand increased security following a spate of incidents underground.

“It is not safe here, particularly when you work an early morning shift. You could be shot at because it is dark and the police won’t do anything except investigate endlessly,” said a NUM member who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said since the beginning of this month about 40 NUM members had chosen to take severance packages because the situation was becoming unbearable.

He claimed a gun was found at Roland shaft at Western Platinum two weeks ago and that late last month three NUM members were attacked at Karee com- pound. A female NUM shop steward was gunned down this week.

Last Sunday Amcu members at Karee hostel went around demanding to see payslips to determine which union was getting workers’ membership dues.

Sthabane said conditions at Wonderkop had not improved at all.

“You said you were here when Lonmin promised to improve the living conditions. Come inside and tell me what has changed,” he said, pointing out faded paint, ruined gravel floors and filthy toilets.

There are two blocks of hostels, each with five rooms being shared by eight

Somewhere, somehow, someone needs to pay

people and one toilet for 80 people. “Life here is hell.” Mthetheleli Mthembu, the brother-in-law of Ntandazo Nokhamba, who was shot by police on August 16 last year, said miners were still living and working under inhumane conditions.

He said R15 000 had been paid for his brother-in-law’s burial and another R25 000 had gone to his family.

“But his long-service money and the provident fund monies have not come through yet. There is no one working in his family. He left behind five children and his last-born was still being breast-fed at the time of his death,” Mthembu said.

Mdlambi Mcetywa said he was still “tongue-tied” by what he called the cruel behaviour of the police.

“Somewhere, somehow, someone needs to pay for this. I think our government owes us an explanation.”