THE DEATH toll of illegal miners caught in an underground fire in a disused mining shaft in South Africa last week has risen to 76, bringing the scale of, and the dangers involved in, the country’s illegal gold-mining trade sharply into focus.
Last Sunday the first of the bodies caught in the inferno were brought to the surface of the Harmony Gold mine at Welkom in the Free State province. As the days passed, the number of casualties increased steadily.
As the extent of the tragedy became apparent, union representatives blamed Harmony, saying the company was unwilling to invest properly in security systems to help prevent the hiring of illegal workers.
“The National Union of Mineworkers [Num] is dismayed and shocked at the increasing number of bodies that have been discovered at Harmony Gold’s Free State mines and believes that the company should take full responsibility for its own inaction,” union spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said.
He added: “While the Num does not in any way support and condone illegal mineworkers, the union believes that these poor workers may have been lured by experienced managers to go and ply their trade at the mine.”
Only 34 of the 76 victims had been identified by relatives by last night. According to the authorities, most of the deceased are South African or from Lesotho.
With rising unemployment and the high price of gold, the number of crime syndicates, who organise the miners and buy gold from them, becoming involved in illegal mining is said to have increased dramatically.
Known as zama-zamas, the illegal miners live underground for months at a time and many depend on legitimate miners to bring them food and other supplies to survive.
Yesterday Harmony suspended more than 110 of its own workers and contractors at the Eland shaft in Welkom for accepting bribes from illegal miners in return for supplies or access to the mine.
The company said it had brought 294 illegal miners to the surface at the Eland shaft over the past two weeks.
During a visit to a Harmony mine this week, South African mining minister Susan Shabangu said illegal mining and the syndicates that organised it should not be tolerated.
“Legal miners are threatened to turn a blind eye to these activities. If you hear what is going on underground you would know that these . . . activities cannot go on without being organised,” the minister said.
Harmony, the fifth-largest producer of gold in the world, is particularly exposed to plundering by illegal miners, because it was built on a strategy of buying old, unwanted gold shafts and mines. – (Additional reporting: Reuters)
