BusinessLive writes that when the controversial Gupta family bought the Dominion uranium mine in 2010 they renamed it Shiva Uranium, after the Hindu god of destruction, which was apt because, increasingly, the mine appears doomed.
Earlier this year the Gupta companies were placed in business rescue after transactional banking facilities were cut off. But now a complex and baffling mix of competing interests threatens the rescue process — particularly at Shiva, where operations have come to a standstill. The futures of 287 people hang in the balance, and it’s feared the assets are falling into an irreversible state of disrepair. Shiva workers assembled last week near the entrance to the mine, located near Klerksdorp in the North West. "Nothing is operating here, everything stands still," said Welile Dube, an electrician at the mine since 2009. He claimed salaries have not been paid since July, so workers stopped coming to work. "The zama zamas [illegal miners] took everything in the mine. They took the cables … even now they are stealing, there’s nothing here," Dube said. Tumi Matosela, an engineering assistant on the mine since 2010, said the impact on workers and their families was dire. Matosela cannot understand why nobody is doing anything. For Dube, too, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the business rescue process. "There are lots of things we don’t know, we just hear the rumours," he stated.
- Read this report by Lisa Steyn which provides more information of the convoluted business rescue process at BusinessLive
- Read too, Gupta mine employees destitute after no salary for three months, at The Citizen
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