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The Star writes about Xolisa Dyomfana, who has been bitterly disappointed twice by mining companies.
First he was part of a group of workers who were not paid by the now defunct Aurora Empowerment. Now he is one of the 209 mineworkers fighting Modder East Gold One for money dating back to 2012. In the Aurora case, he was one of more than 5,000 workers at the Orkney and Grootvlei gold mines who lost their jobs after the mines were stripped of gold and assets while under the control of Aurora. In the Gold One case, the workers were part of a strike in 2012. During the action, the gold producer dismissed half the workforce (1,044 employees) after obtaining a court interdict prohibiting the illegal wage strike. For the past seven years, Dyomfana and his colleagues have been fighting for a payout or their jobs back. They say they had been protesting because they wanted their union, the Professional Transport and Allied Workers Union, to be accepted at the mine. Three days after the strike, a court order ruled that they must return to work, but they were allegedly turned away at the gates. The workers took their case to the Labour Court, but lost in 2016. Most of the former employees, who live at the Skoonplaas informal settlement near the mine, survive on piece jobs and the mercy of friends and family. Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party secretary Vusi Ngqokomash, who is trying to assist the miners, said: “Eighty percent who live in Skoonplaas are unemployed because of this. They’ve been fighting the company for years but nothing has come of it.”
- Read more of Tebogo Monama’s report which appeared in The Star of 20 March 2019 at SA Labour News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page