Disasters ‘order of the day at Sibanye’

THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said yesterday that it was “angry and concerned” at the rate at which mining incidents were happening at Sibanye Stillwater’s operations.

This comes after Sibanye confirmed yesterday that three mineworkers had died and two others remained trapped at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Kloof Ikamva Shaft near Westonaria, south-west of Joburg.

“It seems that disasters have become the order of the day at Sibanye Stillwater, and we are highly disturbed and angered by this as this company is leading the pack in terms of fatalities per mine,” said Peter Bailey, NUM’s health and safety chairperson.

“This is unacceptable as we don’t sell our lives, limbs or lungs to the industry but our labour to provide for our families. The Department of Mineral Resources minister and its inspectorate must now act or face the might of NUM.”

NUM said that four miners had died, but Sibanye disputed this, saying that there had been an incident at its Kloof Ikamva shaft involving five employees who entered an abandoned working place.

“Sadly, three employees have been retrieved and declared deceased. Mine rescue teams are still searching for two employees,” the mine said.

Kloof mine is a shallow to ultra-deep level gold mine consisting of five producing shaft complexes that mine open hound and pillars with the deepest operating level some 3 347 metres below surface.

In February this year, two workers were trapped underground at the same shaft following a seismic incident.

Sibanye-Stillwater said the Department of Mineral Resources and all the unions have been informed about the incident.