Headed home with heavy hearts ... and empty pockets

MILITANT trade union the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has spent R4-million on hiring 100 buses to send striking workers home for the Easter weekend.

But many of these workers have not earned a cent since downing tools on January 23 and leave with a heavy heart.

They will arrive in Lesotho, Mpumalanga, Mozambique and the Eastern Cape without food, clothing or the gifts they usually take along.

“Why should I go home empty-handed? I have four children back home and surely they expect me to come home with something,” said striking miner Thabang Tontsi, who chose to remain in Marikana over Easter.

Some 70 000 members of Amcu in the platinum sector have been on strike for nearly 13 weeks, demanding a minimum salary of R12 500 a month.

Amcu national treasurer Jimmy Gama said the union had hired the buses because it knew how important the Easter weekend trip was to its members.

On Thursday morning, as they queued for their buses, some seemed despondent and others even embarrassed to take the journey.

Once home, they will be relying on their families to provide for them.

Gama said the union had not yet decided how to distribute the R1-million strike fund it had established. He said the executive would decide how it would distribute it. “We are also expecting more donations,” he said.

Dennis Ntshangase, a rockdrill operator at Lonmin from KwaNongoma in KwaZuluNatal, said: “I really miss home, but going there and becoming a burden to my mother just discourages me.”

He said his mother, a pensioner, had already sent him money to survive during the strike.

When asked about the fund, Tontsi said: “I think it’s much better that we go back to work and that money is used to compensate us and gets added to our salaries.”