Increasing mine accidents worrying, says portfolio committee
The increasing number of mining accidents “which could possibly be caused by the lapse of safety measures” is a cause for concern, the National Assembly’s mineral resources committee said on Saturday.
This follows an accident at the Lily Mine at Barberton in Mpumalanga early on Friday morning.
“Although we appreciate a swift rescue of most of those workers, we remain worried about the missing three. Our strong view is that accidents of this nature should not happen in the first place,” committee chairman Sahlulele Luzipo said.
“This accident reaffirms the committee’s long-held belief that drastic measures in the form of legislation should be considered as in the case with road safety laws,” he said.
“Workers go to work in order to put bread on the table for their families and contribute to the growth of the economy, hence we do not expect them to come back dead or injured as if they had gone to the war.”
The committee was concerned that while the industry faced looming job cuts due to low commodity prices and other related matters, there seemed to be a “competing challenge in the form of mine safety which is avoidable”, Luzipo said.
It was reported on Friday that the main crown pillar collapsed into the underground open stopes, trapping scores of miners at the gold mine owned by Vantage Goldfields Limited at the start of the morning shift.
By lunchtime on Friday, all of the 87 miners who had been working underground at the mine when the collapse occurred near the entrance had been safely brought to the surface.
However, according to a statement issued by Vantage Goldfields, the owners of the mine, a search was still on for three employees who had not been accounted for. According to the statement the three had been at the surface when the collapse occurred.
Mine operations director Mike Beck told journalist at the mine that the accident was a “freak accident”. He said the crown pillar had collapsed.
“It’s the area where some of our buildings stand at the top of the mine. It doesn’t affect the people working down in the mine other than it blocked the portal.”
He said the unaccounted people could have been working in the buildings.
African News Agency (ANA)