Sowetan reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has slammed the Palabora Mining Company in Limpopo for prioritising profits ahead of workers’ safety.

This was after operations at the mine resumed on Wednesday, following the deaths of six workers a week ago.

The miners died after a conveyor belt caught fire while they were working underground on July 15.

One of the dead miners, Russel Warne, is yet to be buried. His funeral is scheduled to take place in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape tomorrow.

Operations had been shut down since the incident. However, the company issued a circular advising workers to return to work on Wednesday.

The circular, signed by the company’s general manager for human resources Maboko Mahlaole reads: “All operational areas will be on day shift, except for Magnetite Logistics and Vermiculite, which will resume normal shifts”.

Mahlaole wrote that their focus will be on safety, health and risk assessments as part of revitalising their safety measures.

But NUM provincial secretary Phillip Mankge accused the company of prioritising profits.

“It shows how cheap the company takes the lives of its employees.

“How does it expect workers to return to work when investigations into the deaths of their six colleagues have not been concluded?”

Yesterday, a mineworker who spoke on condition of anonymity said he had been ordered to return to work.

“My shift starts at 7am tomorrow [today], but I don’t know what we are going to be doing,” he said, adding that he still feared for his safety.

Philly Ntivana, chairman of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, said the company only wanted to brief workers.

“The company wants to give workers first-hand information about the direction it wants to take. It is not like it wants people to return to work,” Ntivana said.

The company also allegedly refused to provide transport for workers to go and bury Warne.

Spokeswoman for the company, Lydia Radebe, said the lifting of the stand down was to focus on maintenance to ensure that safety assessments were done properly.

“The area where the incident happened is still the subject of investigation and nobody who is not part of the investigating team is allowed to be in that area,” said Radebe.

She said she still had to ascertain whether the company refused to provide transport to go and bury Warne.

Nathi Shabangu, spokesman for Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, said he was surprised by the developments at the mine yesterday.

The original of this report by Frank Maponya appeared on page 11 of Sowetan of 27 July 2018

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