‘We eat rats and cats to survive’

File picture: Supplied

File picture: Supplied

Published Aug 13, 2015

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Rustenburg - They have survived by eating cats, jackals, rats, hares and wild spinach.

This is the plight of more than 1 000 former Aquarius Platinum Mine workers who spoke to the African News Agency in Kroondal, near Rustenburg, this week.

“We are sick and dying. We survived on wild animals,” said Edward Sekoboto, the chairperson of the group.

Cat skins could be seen hanging around the miners’ hostel to dry and to be turned into hats.

“At least 155 of us have died. They could not be laid to rest at their country of birth because we are destitute.”

The workers were fired in August 2009 for embarking on an unprotected strike.

“We wanted a salary increase and better working conditions. Aquarius blast three times a day and this affected our health. It gives us TB and lung cancer,” he said.

“The mine evicted us from the hostel within two days of the strike and our belongings, including passports, got lost. We stayed in tents provided by the Rustenburg municipality for three weeks, before the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) won a case in which the employer was ordered to give us accommodation until our case was finalised. This is a private hostel paid by the mines.”

Sekoboto said the NUM took their case to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, but abandoned the miners along the way.

“Then Mewusa (Metal and Electrical Workers Unions of South Africa) took our case to the Labour Court. They also left us. Since then we have been struggling. At the moment we have an advocate who is pursuing our case. We are struggling to secure a court date,” he said.

“We do not have clothes and food. South Africans citizens were able to apply for new identity documents, for us the Home Affairs (Department) could not help us apply for passports.”

He said he would need R560 for transport to the Lesotho border, and another R540 to apply for a passport.

“We do not have such money. We have not seen our families in six years, our fellow brothers died and could not be buried at their home country.”

The workers are contesting an unfair dismissal against the employer.

“I worked for this company since 2002 until 2009. I have not been paid a cent for service and other benefits. We want this case to be finalised so that we can get our monies and go home.”

While Sekoboto was speaking to reporters near the hostel gate manned by a security guard, frail men were going in and out of the gate.

“We are all sick from eating wild animals. We want our story to be told. Our strike started before the Marikana strike, but ours was never reported. It is only this year that our story is being told.”

Forty-four people were killed during a violent wage strike in Marikana, near Rustenburg, in August 2012. Thirty-four miners were killed on August 16, 2012, after a confrontation with the police near a koppie at Nkaneng informal settlement. Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

Lawyers for Human Rights and the Catholic Church were expected to visit the hostel on Thursday to provide food parcels and clothing to the affected former mineworkers.

Charmane Russell, on behalf of Aquarius, said the men were former employees of Murray & Roberts Cementation (MRC) and not Aquarius.

“There is no direct relationship between Aquarius and the former employees. MRC had been contracted to undertake Aquarius mining function. This contract was terminated in June 2012 when the mining operations converted to owner mining,” she said.

“These former employees of MRC were dismissed in September 2009 following unprotected strike action. All actions taken by Aquarius’ contractor were undertaken in line with the Labour Relations Act and this has been repeatedly upheld by the CCMA and the Labour Court. The case of unfair dismissal before the Labour Court was dismissed in December 2014.”

Murray & Roberts Cementation (MRC) said it had last employed the affected workers in 2012.

“This contract was terminated in June 2012 when the mining operations converted to an owner-operated model,” said MRC spokesperson Ed Jardim.

He said the workers were not unfairly dismissed.

“The workers were dismissed because they participated in an illegal and unprotected strike - as found in a court of law. All actions taken by MRC were undertaken in line with the Labour Relations Act and this has been repeatedly upheld by the CCMA and the Labour Court. The case of unfair dismissal before the Labour Court was dismissed in December 2014,” he said.

“These employees have not worked for Murray & Roberts Cementation for quite a few years now. Blaming Murray & Roberts Cementation for their current environment and living conditions as a result of their legal dismissal would not be factual or accurate.”

ANA

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