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Still no cash for Aurora's abandoned workers

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Aurora workers still haven't been paid. Picture: Herman Verwey/File
Aurora workers still haven't been paid. Picture: Herman Verwey/File

Seated on a mattress in his room at Grootvlei mine hostel in Springs, eastern Johannesburg, Mozambican-born Joao Mazuze has nowhere to go.

Mazuze (57) has been stuck in the country for eight years waiting for his salary payout and cannot go back to his home in Xai-Xai.

Following an announcement by trade union Solidarity that 300 of the 5 300 former Aurora workers would receive partial salary payments last week, Mazuze said he has not received any payout.

The last payment he received was a portion of his monthly salary in November 2009.

Instead of getting his full R900 a month at the time for working as a wedge driver, he said he only received at least R200.

“It was in 2009 that they started with this mischief of not paying our full salaries. The last time I saw a R100 note is about four years ago when I went to Mozambique to bury my grandson. Even then, the family sent me the money. I only survive by collecting tins and taking them to the scrap yard.”

For a sack of tins, he gets between R20 to R25 to buy mealie meal.

However, he said it also takes time to collect tins because his health is deteriorating and he fears he could die and be buried in the country without his relatives knowing about it.

“Other colleagues of mine from my country have been buried by the municipality [City of Ekurhuleni] because no one can claim their bodies at the mortuary. I don’t want to be like that. I want to go home but I can’t. This country owes me. I have to be paid and go. Sometimes, I feel if I could just get R450 to go home that will be okay. I can’t walk to Mozambique. I will die on my way. Government must repatriate our bodies at least so that we can be buried with dignity by our families. We are not in this country illegally,” he said.

Mazuze arrived in the country in 1989, leaving behind six children to work at a mine in Klerksdorp, earning R870 a month.

In 1997 he was retrenched but was fortunate to get a job at Pamodzi Gold’s Grootvlei mine in Springs in 1998.

However, his fortunes turned sour when the mines were taken over in 2009 by Aurora Management Systems directors, who include former president Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma and former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zondwa Mandela.

“I don’t wish to see them [Khulubuse and Zondwa]. Our families back home have been destroyed because of this. I just want government to do something for us and go home,” Mazuze said.

The other former Aurora directors are Thulani Ngubane, Solly Bhana and Fazel Bhana.

Under Aurora, the mine collapsed and left thousands of workers destitute.

Although one former miner – who spoke to City Press on condition of anonymity – revealed he had received a cheque for R7 000 during the week; he said he took it back after he discovered his initials were incorrectly stated.

Grootvlei Skomplaas chairperson Jerry Alphane, who has spearheaded the fight for former workers, said not a single former miner has received payment.

“I’m the only one who has been helping them to survive. I cook for them, especially the elderly and sick. I collect wood and sell it in town. That’s how we survive. But I cannot do this alone. Government and anyone who can help must please come forward to assist these people,” Alphane said.

He said they stayed in the hostel because former workers had nowhere to go.

“When they stripped this mine, they also wanted to strip the hostels. With the help of the municipality and liquidators, I managed to have these houses given to us to stay. Life has been difficult for us,” Alphane said.

Aurora mines liquidator Gert de Wet had not responded to questions sent to him on Tuesday about how many former miners would get payments, and how much each would be paid.

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