An emergency fund was set up by South African trade union Solidarity to feed 4,000 mineworkers and their families, who since October last year have been underpaid or paid very late by a high-production Free State gold mine, partly owned by Canadians.
Solidarity unionists say that the 4,000 mineworkers of the
Pamodzi Gold Mine in the Free State and their families cannot afford to buy food any longer. Since October last year, these 4,000 miners have been receiving their salaries so late or piecemeal that their families -- some 40,000 dependents -- now can no longer afford a daily meal. There is urgent need of everything: from staple foods to toiletries, and their medical aid funds have also been frozen because the company fails to pay the fees.
And the town of Welkom in the Free State, which relies on this mine's income, has been plunged into unprecedented economic hardship, the trade union leaders warn.
This deliberate underpayment scheme by Pamodzi has in turn plunged the entire mining town of Welkom in the Free State into a severe economic crisis, says union spokesman Jaco Kleynhans.
Yet this particular gold mine, the President Steyn in Welkom, is a proved long-term producer of gold bullion: Thistle Mining Co., its Canadian owner/investor up to February 2008
see reported a total sale of
487,069 troy ounces of gold from 2004 to 2006.
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Alba Lords' Registry UK Former UK conservative cabinet minister Lord Lang of Monkton chairs the Thistle Mining Co. which sold its efficiently-run Welkom gold mine to a black-economic-empowerment company.
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The following year however, Thistle Gold Mining, which is chaired by a former British cabinet member, Lord Lang of Monkford, sold the company to a black-economic empowerment company, Pamodzi Gold, as required under South African law - but Thistle, according to the website, has remained an 'investor company'.
This Welkom mine sits on top of the an historically very rich vein: the Basal Reef, which is the primary contributor of gold tons, with tabular ore-bodies less than 2m thick, i.e. they are easy to reach and thus relatively inexpensive to mine. And at the moment, gold bullion sells for $947.00 per troy ounce.
When Thistle Gold Mining, headed by chairman
Lord Lang of Monkton, bought the mine in 2004, this Canadian-based company wasn't all that healthy: that same year, it also had to restructure its debt and equity.
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According to the very
last financial report Thistle Mining published before its sale to Pamodzi Gold, their financial situation was good, although its annual gold production also had dropped steadily during its 3-year-long stewardship
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The mine produced 165,277 troy ounces of gold in 2004; reached its highest level of 175,490 in 2005 but dropped to 146,302 troy ounces sold in 2006. this was total of 487,069 troy ounces of gold. Gold prices averaged $850 per troy ounces in those years. At the moment, gold bullion sells for $947.00 per troy ounce.
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There should be no reason why this company can't pay its 4,000 permanent mineworkers - except for one major problem: as we have reported on Digital Journal before, South African gold mines are being looted massively by heavily-armed pirate gold mining gangs, paid for and armed by international Chinese crime syndicates, and the Welkom mine is also being plagued by this dangerous scourge.
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Digital Journal has approached Pamodzi Gold's CEO for comment. Without any results thus far.
Miners are starving:
Thistle Mining Co The President Steyn goldmine in South Africa is known for its steady, reliant supply of gold: it produced 487,069 troy ounces of gold from 2004-2006, and bullion now sells for $947.00 /oz. Yet its 4,000 goldminers and their families starve because they don't get paid in time or only partially. What is going on here?
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Things now are so badly run at this once so rich gold mine that Pamodzi no longer pays their fulltime mineworkers on time nor in full since October last year - plunging an entire community into poverty and hunger.
With the international gold bullion prices at such high levels, it's a puzzle why one of South Africa's largest mining conglomerates, sitting on top of the richest gold reserves in the world, would have such financial problems that they pay their mineworkers too late and too little.
Pamodzi Gold also is certainly wealthy enough to pay these 4,000 workers: the black-economic empowerment company also runs Consolidated Modderfontein Mines 1979 Ltd, a 10,927 ha combined open pit and underground goldmine which are all producing actively in one of the richest gold-producing areas in the world. They also run Grootvlei Proprietary Mines Ltd in Springs at the East Rand, mining 5,357ha with three producing shafts; and the open-pit mine in Nigel at the East Rand near Johannesburg of Gold Mining Company (Pty) Ltd.
Solidarity says that Pamodzi company had held meetings in which formal agreement were reached with the trade union to pay the workers on time and in full in March, for the first time since October. However on Friday only 10% of their wages were paid -- but to only 1,000 of the 4,000 full time workers.
The trade union's Helping Hand aid organisation says its Welkom Fund helps mine workers' families buy food and other other basic necessities of life.
"A tremendous sociological crisis is developing in Welkom,' says Kleynhans. Workers have been waiting for two weeks now to get their entire monthly salary for February.'
The problems started from October, when workers started getting their pay too late. "And that following month, workers were told that they would have to wait for their pay again. Their January salaries were paid in two segments. However when the workers were told that they 'had to be satisfied with 20% of their pay in February, this was the last straw.
Post-dated debit orders pay their salaries:
"This led to a wild-cat strike at the mine. This forced the company into paying 40% more of the owed salaries this week - but in most cases, with post-dated debit orders at the bank."
"This is placing these 4,000 breadwinners in an 'incredibly difficult position and is creating far-reaching sociological problems. For instance, because the company also paid their medical aid fund payouts too late, workers found access to medical aid frozen - and most families are suffering from severe food shortages because this has been going on since October.'
"According to our calculations, each mine-worker supports eight to eleven dependents, i.e. up to 44,000 people are now suffering hunger and deprivation, and this with winter rapidly approaching.'
Solidarity has issued a call for durable food products, baby products, toiletries and household cleaning products. Contact Solidarity Helping Hand at 27 (0) 861 25 24 23. Jaco Kleynhans, Solidarity Trade Union -
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