This comes after a 40-year-old worker died at the Tiahao Investment, operating from the ZIMASCO west plant in Kwekwe.
According to
the Midlands province police spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko, the
deceased, Cosmas Musoni of Mbizo 4 Extension in Kwekwe, was operating a
front-end loader, loading chrome sludge, when a heap slid and trapped him and
the front-end loader.
Musoni was
rushed to Kwekwe Hospital but was reported dead upon arrival.
Acting
Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Kudakwashe
Munengiwa said the labour union is greatly concerned with the increase of
fatalities at foreign owned mining companies.
He added that
the ZCTU has dispatched its officers to collect all the information and would
escalate the matter with the ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.
The labour
union leader urged the government to enact laws that protect the safety of
workers.
“It seems as if
the foreign owned companies don’t value people’s lives and we urge our
government to speed up the enactment of the Social Security bill, which will
help us to enforce safety and health in all workplaces especially in chrome
smelting mining companies,” he said.
He confirmed
that the labour board will raise this incident with the National Social
Security Authority (NSSA) inspectorate.
Munengiwa
emphasized that workers “should not be treated like slaves in their own land”,
adding that the labour union will do everything to make sure that no lives are
continuously lost due to negligence and carelessness by investors for the sake
of profit.
Workers in some
foreign owned companies are exposed to unsafe working conditions, noncompliance
with labour standards, and the denial of their fundamental rights.
They have been
injured while others are killed as a result of workplace hazards and none of
them have been adequately compensated.
However, other
foreign miners have been working towards improving compliance and strengthening
the health and safety of its employees at workplaces, including allowing them
to create workers’ committees. Midweek Watch
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