Monica Hlalele, a single mother of three from the Majakenena Village, a few kilometres outside of Moonooi, lost her job working as an assistant to the mine overseer in December last year.
“I used to organise the gang cards for the miners, like how many people are underground on a job.”
Limited view: Monica Hlalele, a single mother, lost her job last December Like many from her village, she was employed by the contractor, Red Path Mining. They were the first to lose their jobs when the economic downturn struck the International Ferro Metal South Africa mine. She had been working for Red Path Mining for a year and half.
Hlalele lives with her mother, her brother and her three children — 10-year-old twins Aubrey and Audrey and 15-year-old Hope.
Her brother, Oupa Skei, also lost his job with Red Path Mining in December. He had been working there for a year and earned a salary of R4 000. He used to support his two children — a six-year-old in Rustenberg and an eight-month-old baby with a local woman. “I used to send R1 000 home to Rustenberg,” says Skei. “But I can’t anymore. It’s very bad, I have children and I have no money to give them.”
Hlalele and Skei were the chief breadwinners in the family.
Hlalele’s sister, who doesn’t live with them, still has a job with the mining contractor, Shaft Sinkers, and part of her R4 000 salary now goes to help support Monica’s household. “We all depend on one sister,” says Hlalele. “It is very difficult.”
Says Skei: “When I was working it was very easy. There were three of us working and there was enough money. Now I am just hanging around.”
Speaking about the impact of job cuts on the community, Hlalele says there is a lot more alcohol abuse and the crime rate has risen too.
“The thing that is terrifying us is the crime rate, people just come into your house and steal things.
“You know sometimes the community take the law into their own hands, but sometimes they hand them over to the police.”
Hlalele says many jobless miners have resorted to drinking to deal with the psychological effects of being unemployed and not being able to provide for their families.
She is now terrified about the future of her teenage daughter, Hope: “This is not a safe place for kids with the alcohol, the rape, the crime,” she says.
“My daughter is used to getting whatever she wants, now she may go to a man who will give her whatever she wants, so teenage pregnancy will be high too. Most of the children here go drinking in taverns —”
Anecdotally, Hlalele has noticed more divorces in the community than before. “There are no women who want to stay with a man who is not working,” she says.
Asked whether there is any form of community service or outreach in Majakenena Village, Hlalele looks puzzled.
“Here, in this place? This is the worst place — it has nothing like that. People don’t care about this place.”