DA stands with mine workers

The Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday called for action against those responsible for the collapse of the Gupta-owned Optimum Coal Mine in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

Employees protested outside the mine on Monday over unpaid wages as the company failed to pay their wages since September, after Tegeta Exploration and Resources, which bought the mine from Glencore in 2016, was placed under business rescue earlier this year.

Optimum has also failed to supply Eskom with coal since March and as a result, the utility has a serious coal shortage, with a number of power plants having less than 10 days of coal left.

The DA’s Natasha Mazzone, Geordin Hill-Lewis and Jane Sithole visited the mine yesterday and engaged with the local Pullens Hope community to see firsthand the effects of unpaid wages.

Mazzone said employees of Optimum were the victims who were suffering the effects of state capture in silence.

“Tegeta has pillaged Optimum. There are workers here that have not been paid for two to three months. We’ve seen retrenchments of workers and the country is experiencing load shedding because coal is not being mined,” she said. – ANA