17 Feb 2013

 

Galane Gold mine, formerly known as Mupane Gold mine, employees delivered a petition to their management on Thursday.

Amongst their grievances, the employees have raised retrenchments, which  alleged  the mine planned to undertake. 

Handing the petition, Mupane mine union branch chairperson, Mr Thuso Raditsebe said the mining company has joined other companies in job shedding for more profits, adding that it was common among companies which have their headquarters based abroad. 

Mr Raditsebe noted that the mine was set to lay off 90 of their 131 members, in which the management gave reasons to be that earth moving and hauling equipment was unserviceable. 

He said their view is that retrenchments could have been avoided had the company planned and budgeted for the midlife service of equipment. 

The union chairperson was adamant that retrenchments could be avoided if the company had accepted their proposal to buy new equipment or repair the existing ones. 

He however said it frustrated them to note that their suggestions and proposals were overlooked. 

Furthermore, Mr Raditsebe said the mine has even shown that they have made profits last year, but to their surprise, they have chosen to go ahead with retrenchments rather than saving jobs.

“Workers have all of a sudden become victims of old machines or of management’s failures to have a maintenance plan in place,” he said.. 

In addition, Mr Raditsebe said although the mine was a small operation,  it has sub-contracted 23 contractors, many of them being of foreign companies, mainly from Zimbabwe, who also have preferred to employ their Zimbabwean nationals at the expense of the locals. 

He said this indicates that the gold mine does not support government policy of citizen empowerment.

Mr Raditsebe further noted that since their last petition  in 2010 regarding poor communication, there has been no improvement and as partners of the mine, they  remained in the dark with regards to performance of the mine.  

The petition was received on behalf of the management by the general manager Mr Lawrence Mangigwa. ENDS