Local residents sang ”Nkosi sikelele kaffirtjie” whenever they were around. Mine security guards roughed them up and white trainees were paid twice what they were. These are some of the accusations black engineering trainees have levelled against Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD).
Bongani Ndlovu (21) was one of five engineering trainees who started experiential training at DRD in February last year.
He has alleged that the mining company discriminated against him and another black trainee during the year they were at the Blyvooruitzicht mine in Carletonville and Hartebeestfontein mine in Stilfontein.
DRD has rejected the allegations, saying that the trainees were troublemakers. General manager of investor relations Ilja Graulich told the Mail & Guardian: ”The company was one of the first in the South African gold-mining industry to conclude a black economic empowerment transaction. This would not have been remotely possible had its employment practices been racially discriminatory in any way.”
Ndlovu disagreed, citing several examples of abuse: while white trainees had their wages paid directly into their bank accounts, black trainees were forced to queue along with the rest of the black labour force to collect their wages. He said white trainees were reimbursed for business travel at the official company rate per kilometre, while blacks were paid only the equivalent minibus-taxi fare.
Ndlovu also alleged that white students were given a living-out allowance, while black students were initially expected to stay in mine hostels and were later moved to a private guesthouse in Carletonville, where they were subjected to racial abuse by residents. Ndlovu said he was victimised for objecting to the discrimination and was told by management that ”if you start thinking clever, then just go”. DRD denied this, saying that all trainees were given wage-payment options, there were no living arrangement disparities, and it was company policy to provide bus fare only from the students’ residences to the town closest to the mine and back; any other transport was to be paid for by the students, said Graulich. And DRD did not ignore the black trainees’ complaints, he said. ”In respect of the two complainants, when they drew management’s attention to problems they had getting to the mine and back to their accommodation on a daily basis, a lift arrangement was specially implemented.”
Ndlovu, a Technikon Natal graduate, said the white apprentices with a matric qualification and the three white engineering trainees with a national diploma were paid twice what he was.
He earned just more than R900 a month for his year of in-service training. He claimed that when the trainees embarked on their training DRD promised they would be given training to the value of R30 000, and that these funds could either be used for study purposes or be paid as a salary while they worked on the mine. DRD spends R50 000 a year on each trainee, Graulich said. ”DRD is under no obligation to pay the technikon students a salary. The company does, however, pay each a stipend of R1 000 a month.”
Ndlovu said he felt he had no recourse because his diploma was useless without a year’s practical experience: ”We needed a year of in-house training, otherwise the qualification is not recognised [by the technikon].”
Graulich said the company provides training as part of its social responsibility drive. ”DRD has an arrangement with technikons in terms of which it provides approved candidates with the one year of practical training that is required for them to complete their particular courses of study,” he said.
None of the complaints made by trainees were resolved, Ndlovu said, despite letters detailing the abuse, which he claims to have hand delivered to DRD’s head office.
Graulich said the technikon students were intent on causing trouble: ”It was only these two who were not comfortable. They haven’t been hired by any other mines — not even the unions will support these guys.”
But the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was not surprised by the allegations. Although the union had not heard of these specific incidents, NUM head of publicity and information Moferefere Lekorotsoana told the M&G that racial abuse was a ”common phenomenon” and the norm rather than the exception across the sector. ”Companies say that they want to rid themselves of racism but they hardly do it.”
According to the union, the industry-standard minimum wage for an entry-level underground miner is R2 000 a month, regardless of qualification and experience. DRD has been pleading poverty for some time and currently pays just less than R2 000 a month, said Lekorotsoana.