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NW mine orders miners to vacate premises

───   LUCKY NKUYANE 10:57 Tue, 26 May 2020

NW mine orders miners to vacate premises | News Article

Miners in Orkney's mine of the Village Main Reef’s (VMR) Tau Lekoa Mine outside Klerksdorp in the North West once again find themselves in a desperate situation after they have been ordered to vacate the mine's premises.


This comes a few weeks after the employer sent a letter to over 6000 workers of the Tau Lekoa Mine and Kopanong  Mine also situated in Orkney, notifying them of massive retrenchments due to the heavy financial crisis. 

However, in this letter, the employer continues to inform the employees that all of those residing in the hostel will have to evacuate the premises and that no food will be given to employees as the Mine is in huge financial constraints. 

In this letter seen by OFM News, the company further alluded that the only employees allowed to obtain food from the hostel will be the foreign nationals due to them not being able to return to their (respective) countries. OFM News also understands that the national union of mineworkers (NUM) is a majority union in the mine and is yet to comment after questions were sent to them.


The company says trade unions representing workers were also given a chance to raise several concerns for management to take into consideration. Tau Lekoa says subsequent to those concerns being considered, management has decided on the following:

• Employees currently working on the care & maintenance list will still receive their meals as normal.

• All employees who are not on the care & maintenance list may receive meals and still reside within the hostel, provided that the cost for those meals shall be recouped from money when paid out to them by the company.

• No other employees will be allowed to return to the hostel until further notice.

Meanwhile, one of the employees at the mine, Lebohang Maputsoe, tells OFM News that the move by the employer is shocking.

He says they fail to comprehend the actions of the employer considering that some of these workers come from as far as the Eastern Cape.

He also said that some of the workers have managed to claim from the Unemployed Insurance Fund (UIF) but says not all managed to do so.

"Those (employees) from the neighbouring countries, such as Lesotho and Mozambique, did not receive any of their salaries and also some South Africans haven't been paid too," he adds.

The management of the mine earlier blamed the lockdown regulations to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country which has so far killed 481 people and infected 23 615 while 11 919 recovered.

It said the mine has so far lost millions of rands due to the effects of the lockdown.


OFM News


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