Workshop with the Vosman community in eMalahleni

Lorraine Kakaza/Vosman,eMalahleni,Mpumalanga/150917

Today we had a workshop  at Vosman location  Emalahleni ,Mpumalanga province  here in South Africa.

The purpose of this workshop is to bring the community of Vosman on board and build a relationship with support them to take collective community  action on the problems they faced with coal mining.

It was such an honour to see members of the community addressing their own issues. However they needed support and to be given direction. 

Last year 2016 October the community wrote a complain letter to the government mining department the DMR concerning the nearby mines that surrounds them. This is what they said in their letter.

“Vosman community complaint
As Vosman we have complained about the mines.The mines are busy mining closer to us. We as the community we are complaining about our houses that have cracks caused by the mines” what will happen when the mines are gone? Who is going to  fix our houses? 

We are less than 500meters away from the blasting area and our children are not safe .

The community is complaining about the dust , when the mine blasts, the dust come to the community  and that dust causes diseases like Tb and others.

The mine doesn’t take care of the community. The mine promised the community many things like giving our children bursaries, iPad and skills development training and to build a small bridge for  children who are going to school. One of the mines told us about royalties and give us the statement of the amount that belonged to the community which was  never known to the community.”

The name of the mines are:
• Schoenland mine
•Skoongenzincht mine
•Motau Mining solution
•Thembani Technical Services
•Moshoeka Mining

The community wants answers and want the mines to keep their promises, and they are still going to fight to get them as they are determined to do so!!