Former mineworkers want their payouts

ERPM’s former mineworkers and widows of former mineworkers are aggrieved about unpaid service payments, which were apparently promised to them following the mine’s closure.

The mineworkers, who live in Comet, said their appeals for assistance have fallen on deaf ears for more than 10 years.

According to Samuel Litheko, who started working at the mine in 1971, when the mine closed down due to liquidation in 1999 they were told that the mine had about R40-million in funds, but this was not enough to pay the workers.

“They came up with a decision to sell the mine’s resources or excess so that the acquired money would be added to the R40-m.
“Over the years, we had seen that the mine had started its process to sell its belongings, including the recent demolishing of the mine shaft, but we haven’t received anything or heard anything from them,” said Litheko.

Another mineworker, James Manganyi, said some of the former mineworkers died longing for their payouts.
Manganyi said their labour union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), has undergone numerous court cases trying to find solutions but nothing fruitful has come out of it.

“In around 2008, seeing that our claims were not attended to, we went to the Union Buildings and then started receiving payments of R200 or sometimes R400.
“But this never lasted long and soon we were back to square one.”

Widow Maria Ramuji said her husband died in 2003 hoping he would get the money and improve their living conditions.

“On numerous occasions, we would go to Johannesburg to lodge claims with the hope of getting the money. When he died, my family suffered as he didn’t even get his provident fund benefits.
“We survived on handouts from family members. If I receive the money I will honour my husband’s wish and buy a house since the metro wants to evict us from our homes,” said Ramuji.

Another widow, Ester Mvimbi, said, “As a single mother, I am struggling. I hope that we get access to these funds so I can buy a house,” she said.

ERPM (under DRDGOLD’s ownership) responded:
DRDGOLD spokesperson James Duncan said DRDGOLD took over in 2005 after acquiring an interest in the mine, following an arrangement with Khumo Bathong Holdings, which bought the mine after its liquidation in 1999.

“When ERPM’s new managers took over, a mixture of old and new staff were hired and they signed new contracts. In 2008 when ERPM closed its doors, it did not go into liquidation, so there was no agreement with former employees regarding a liquidation process.
“DRDGOLD closed ERPM and at the time of closure about 1 500 mineworkers were retrenched and received retrenchment settlements, which had been agreed upon after extensive consultation with organised labour.”

He further said the reason ERPM closed down was that it was proving to be uneconomical to mine in the circumstances prevailing at the time.

“Also, DRDGOLD had taken a strategic decision to exit deep-level underground mining completely to focus on the retreatment of surface gold tailings as its core business,” said Duncan.

The Advertiser has sought comment from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Khumo Bathong Holdings and did not receive it at the time of going to print.

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