South African Communist Party Northern Cape provincial statement, on the Bontekoe mine in Kleinzee (Namaqualand) Disaster
23 May 2012
The SACP in the province is disturbed to learn that there are community members of Kommagas and the surrounding towns trapped in tunnels which were closed by the mine, owned in part by the British Firestone Mining company.
The Party would like to take this opportunity to wish the rescue team and all involved good luck in their endeavour to rescue the remaining diggers who are still trapped in the tunnels since the early hours of Tuesday morning.
We further would like to wish a speedy recovery to all those who were rescued and are still in hospital and lower our banners to those who have lost their lifes trying to put bread and butter on their familys tables.
We view this incident as awake-up call to all (especially De Beers mining company) as this is not for the first time a similar accident happens in the same mine.
The plight of the communities
As the SACP we believe that the interest of the working class and the poor as well as our communities is being undermined by these big mining companies.
Last month (April) the Mining Company decided to close the mine and leaving the community of Kommagas about 80% unemployed as a result of 60% of the workers at this mine have been retrenched.
Subsequently the community of Hondeklibaai is now 95% unemployed and 40% of which were workers at the same mine.
There is no real investment in these communities by the company, except a water pipeline they provided and of which cannot supply the town adequately with water.
What needs to be done?
The SACP further takes this opportunity to caution anyone in our communities not to risk with their lives striving to put bread and butter on their tables.
Secondly we want De Beers and its cronies to take full responsibility of what happened.
Thirdly we call on government especially the Department of Minerals and Resources to push for the rehabilitation process to be speedup and that the community should be considered first. Mining co-operatives that have registered in the area for small scale mining should also be prioritized.
Lastly the Social Development department must speedup the rolling out of the 426 000 grants through Sassa and especially the R79 million set aside for research and development in the province as per their budget speech yesterday.
Issued by:
SACP N-Cape Provincial Executive Committee
For more information contact:
Tshepo "Footsoldier" Mogorosi
Provincial Spokesperson - 073 094 6027 or footsoldiermogorosi@gmail.com
