Kloof mineworkers in mourning

By Rhodé Marshall
16 October 2007

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says its members at the Goldfieds Kloof mine are going to down tools Wednesday and Thursday, to mourn the loss of three miners who died last week after the rope pulling a loaded spillage skip broke and struck them.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the skip was last maintained in March this year which is in contravention of safety rules. Safety procedures call for routine inspections and weekly maintenance,” says NUM Regional Secretary Mluleki Senene.

Two of the deceased are from Lesotho and the third miner from Mozambique. Management at the mine agreed to give miners the opportunity to take time of to mourn the passing of their fellow workers.

“No one will be working who is doing the night shift tomorrow, and on Thursday the morning and afternoon shift will also not work to mourn for our fellow comrades.

We have decided to cripple production for the day, because we have seen there is no other way of putting pressure on employers because we have talked to them about this but there is nothing that has been happening,” says Senene.

The Kloof mine deaths follow the death of four workers at the AngloGold Mponeng mine and the 3200 workers who were trapped underground at Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine – all within the same month.