SIX miners, four of them from one family, are feared dead after the mine they were working in collapsed after heavy rains pounded Matshetshe, Esigodini in Matabeleland South last Tuesday.
By yesterday, the miners had not been rescued or their
bodies recovered after rescue efforts were stalled as the area is “still too
dangerous to carry rescue operations”. The situation was also compounded by the
fact that the mine owner initially refused to acknowledge ownership and the
trapped workers.
Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Chief
Inspector Philisani Ndebele said the matter was now of national importance
given the number of suspected deaths and hence he could not speak on it. He
referred questions to national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi who however, could not immediately comment on the issue.
Sunday News, however, visited the area yesterday where
villagers and community members were still trying to find ways to start digging
up the trapped miners. Nkosilathi Ndlovu (29), Christopher Dube (23), Ndumiso
Dube (19) and Blessed Ncube (24), all members of one family, were trapped
alongside Nduduzo Ntini (28) and another miner only identified as Mlilo.
Only pieces of red cloth marked the area where the miners
had reportedly set up an encampment on a lucrative claim on the banks of
Thekwane River, with villagers telling Sunday News that experts from How Mine,
which offered help in the rescue effort, had deemed the whole area unsafe.
Villagers told Sunday News that rescue efforts had been
delayed by the mine owner, Ms Sakhile Ndlovu, who had since Tuesday, been
allegedly denying that she is the proprietor of the claim. Without a sketch of
the underground layout of the mine, How Mine, which had offered its services
for a rescue on the day of the disaster, had said it could not make good on its
offer.
It was only on Friday after pressure from community members
that the mine owner finally gave the greenlight to her mine manager, only
identified as Madzibaba Ncube, to go ahead and give a sketch of the area. At
the scene of the incident, there were no rescue efforts yesterday, as emotional
family members wailed with villagers holding a prayer vigil at the site.
The devastating effects of the rain were evident, with
heavy mine machinery tossed several feet from the mine. With emotions and fear
running high in an area where gold wars are common, a villager who had been in
contact with the only member to escape from what had been a seven-men group on
Tuesday told Sunday News that the miners had been trapped after ignoring advice
to leave the claim at the onset of Tuesday’s rains.
“The problem, the guy who escaped told us, was that the
other six guys did not think the rain was heavy enough to threaten them. The
area that they were mining at only had a slight drizzle so they thought it was
fine but the water was rushing down from the other side of the river.
“The mine had three tiers. He was on the third level and
his job was to warn those below him when there was an instruction from above.
He told them that it was time to leave but because there are always joking as
guys, they did not take him seriously. Even though he was on the third level,
when he got out of the mine the water was already at knee length,” said the
villager.
Others expressed outrage at the miner owner, Ms Ndlovu who
they said had delayed rescue because if she admitted to owning the claim, law
enforcement officers would descend on her. She had been uprooting equipment
from the encampment, including tents, since Tuesday, incensed villagers
claimed. When Sunday News visited her homestead, Ms Ndlovu declined to shed
more light.
“We have been waiting for people just like you. A police
officer, Mandla Ncube from Esigodini ZRP told me that you need to get clearance
from him before you can talk to us,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of Ms Moddy Ndlovu, who has a son and
three grandchildren trapped underground, Mr Phineas Tshabalala said the family
had only got to hear of the issue on Thursday, while they were still in the
dark about the course of action going forward. Sunday News
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