disaster
Widows of the Vaal Reefs mine locomotive accident are destitute despite compensation, reports Ferial Haffajee
THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is to claim additional compensation from Anglo American for the families of miners who died in the Vaal Reefs disaster.
If successful, the multi-million-rand claim must be paid out by Rand Mutual, the industry insurance house.
The union’s decision follows last year’s Leon Commission of Inquiry into the 1995 accident – one of the worst in South Africa’s mining history, which left 104 miners dead and scores more injured.
Lawyers for the NUM submitted their claim to the compensation commissioner this month. “He will now decide how much extra to award,” says the union’s attorney Prince Mafojane. The Leon commission stated that the company and several employees had been negligent – thus paving the way for the added compensation claim.
Late on the night of May 12 1995, a mine locomotive used to haul gold underground fell down a mine shaft, crushing a cage carrying the miners who were about to start the night-shift.
Workers stuck in the bottom of the double- decker cage were trapped and died there. Many were crushed beyond recognition. The horror of the accident, the helplessness of the men and the number of dependents left destitute saw collective grief grip the land. For once, a mining accident grabbed national headlines as all the media gathered to count every dead miner brought to the surface.
The glare of publicity galvanised the industry and government into action: a victims’ trust was established with Walter Sisulu and Helen Suzman at its helm. Millions of rands were poured into the fund and compensation claims were quickly settled. The trust is now concentrating on education and skills training for the dependents.
Two years later the going is still tough for the widows and children of the miners killed at Vaal Reefs. On a visit to Mozambique to collect information to bolster their claim for added compensation, the NUM found that many families are struggling.
Many spent the lump-sum payments, which averaged at about R62 000 a miner, on building a house. “Now many of them don’t have any source of income,” says NUM official Edward Ramaila, adding that the women should have been advised more wisely to make their money last longer.
Worse off were the contract workers who died in the accident. Because they were not employed by Anglo but by independent contractors, they were not eligible for compensation. Antonio Dangane, for example, had a wife and three children. Flora Dangane received a lump-sum payment of R2 170, while she’s also entitled to a monthly pension of R1 085, but it arrives sporadically.
It is difficult in rural Mozambique to distinguish between general hardship in the world’s poorest country and that occasioned by the deaths of those who kept the homefires burning with the earnings from South Africa’s mines.
“There’s no infrastructure, no electricity, no water and no roads. There’s not even postal delivery,” says Ramaila. The widows visit the offices of The Employment Bureau of Africa (Teba), which is responsible for paying out compensation cheques. It is an arduous undertaking.
“They get to Teba by borrowing money from next door. The trip can take hours,” says Ramaila.
To survive, many of the women travel to plots of land where they plant mitsombola, a sweet-potato-like plant and other vegetables. According to information collected by the NUM, many children do not attend school; those who do are behind for their age.
While compensation pay-outs remain very low, the plight of women in polygamous marriages has been exacerbated as they have had to share compensation payment among themselves.