Sowetan reports that a veteran trade unionist has warned the mining industry and the government that failure to urgently address the issue of thousands of mineworkers who were buried in unmarked graves during apartheid could lead to anarchy.
James Motlatsi, the longest serving president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said: “Anarchy is the easiest thing to start in SA but to control it is something else. Government and the [mining] industry must act now before things get out of hand. Many people lost their lives in mines during apartheid. Their families are angry. Anything can happen.”
Motlatsi said the matter should be resolved now lest it stays on “matters arising” forever in the discussions of the mining industry.
Motlatsi started work on the mines as a Lesotho migrant labourer in 1970, in the Free State. He led NUM from its inception in 1982 to 2000 before joining Teba, the country’s oldest mining labour recruitment agency, as the chief executive in 2001. He is currently Teba’s nonexecutive chairman.
Motlatsi was commenting on Sowetan’s recent exposé about unmarked graves of mineworkers who died on duty and were buried by their employers without the consent of their families. In some cases, workers buried their colleagues after raising funds through burial stokvels.
SA Destitute Ex-Miners Forum is currently assisting about 18,000 families to trace the remains of their relatives buried at mines across the country. The forum also wants to force the Chamber of Mines and government to repatriate the remains for dignified burials.
Motlatsi said before NUM was formed, the remains of dead workers would be kept in the mortuaries of the company’s hospital. “Then the company would organise a black coffin to bury the body in the same clothes they died in. In some instances families would be notified of the death late and be told that their relative had already been buried.”
Motlatsi cited at least three people from his Morifi village in Mohale’s Hoek, Lesotho, who were buried in the 1960s. He said in those days Lesotho citizens were given a three-day pass to come to SA to fetch the body or attend the funeral. “Many saw it as a waste of time because a train trip would take exactly three days.”
Motlatsi indicated that the situation improved after the formation of NUM, leading to two-month “rigorous” negotiations with mine managers in June 1983 before the long mining strike of 1987. “There was lots of resistance from white people. They wanted things to remain as they were; people dying like flies and buried like dogs.” The talks led to formalisation of the industry and establishment of pension funds with burial covers. However, there was still a long way to go to address past atrocities, Motlatsi said.
“Government and the mining industry need to take responsibility to deal with these unmarked graves. Municipalities should also come on board because those graves are on government land.”
Chamber of Mines spokeswoman Memory Johnstone said they were willing to assist to trace unmarked graves but were yet to be approached on this.
This report by Lindile Sifile is on page 14 of Sowetan of 24 November 2016
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