Tunatazama - Community Monitors

Mine shaft angers community

Mosamedi Molin

 

Since the arrival of the mines in the Limpopo Province, Sekhukhune area, there has been a lot going on in communities affected by mines.  Most of the community members especially youth are unemployed which leads to higher number of people living in poverty while surrounded by mines that are fully operational. Some times decisions are taken without the communities which makes matters worse.

 

Mines should employ community members, which it is sometimes a huge problem. Community people often complain that people from far are employed at the mines while the children of the soil are struggling to get employment.

 

On the 18 November 2023 there was a public meeting at  the community . The call was made when the community of Mogabane, Maruping and Monametsane had a dispute over the shaft drilled at the Bokoni platinum mine.

 

The main thing is that the shaft is ripe without informing the communities from the villages about it, which is why the community got angry. The mine ripened the shaft in their land and it is in their fields where some of the community members used to farm.

 

At the meeting, they agreed that they community should go and stop what was happening at the mine shaft.

 

The community is so angry that they agreed that no worker should go to work. Another issue is that there is no single member of community hired from the three villages in the shaft. All the people who are working there are not from the above mentioned villages.

The community leaders said that when they asked why they hired people who are not from the communities, the answer was because no one has the papers to work with the matchines (dump trucks, LHD scoop and others) and it is not true because they are people with papers from the communities.

 

However the leaders pointed out that if there is no one who does not have the qualifications why not pick up the children of the soil and train them so that they too have the papers. They replied that they would do trainings and hire the right ones as they were available.

 

For now the community is still waiting to hear from them.

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