Why should we vote for you, say unpaid Komani ex-miners
Years later, no answers for pensioners still waiting for money owed to them
Ex-mineworkers from Komani are threatening to boycott the elections because their requests for information about promised pension payments are being fobbed off by premier Oscar Mabuyane’s office.
Premier’s office spokesperson Yanga Funani did not respond to questions on when the ex-mineworkers would be paid or their concerns addressed at a public meeting.
He confirmed though that exmineworkers from Sada had been paid.
Ex-mineworkers in Mlungisi say they have waited four agonising years for their payments, but the premier has been silent on the matter.
They also say they have not been invited to any public meetings to address their concerns.
Ex-miner Welcome Ncapayi, 67, from Mlungisi, said: “We stay awake at night worrying because our time is limited and many of us are dying.
“We’ve been waiting for our payments since 2019, and it feels like we’ve been given nothing but empty promises.
“After the elections we believe our matter will be tossed to the side.
“So we cannot as ex-mineworkers go to elections while we have not been given our money.”
William Foto, 71, said in January he and other ex-mineworkers in Komani heard about a meeting that was to be held in Sada for ex-miners in the Whittlesea area.
They attended the meeting to inquire about when a meeting would be held for those from the Komani area.
“In that meeting they told us they would come to us in February to meet with Ezibeleni, Zingquthu and Komani ex-miners but we are now in March.
“We do not know what is happening. This is affecting us because
elections are ahead of us and new people will be placed in the office of the premier who will know nothing about our monies.”
He said they contacted deputy
public protector, advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, to help them get action from the premier’s office.
“She told us that before lodging a complaint with her we would need to
first find out the reason why our monies are not being given to us, and based on that information she would start the process of assisting us.”
Foto said they had heard news
reports about ex-miners in other parts of the province, such as Ogni, having received their payments.
He said they had also struggled to get paid what was owing to them.