Who is fooling who at the Tati Nickel Mining Company?
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday September 26, 2014 15:45
The death of the young miner, Warona Khutsafalo who hails from the rural Tswapong village of Mogapinyana over the weekend, became a serious subject of debate.
Trade unionists seriously questioned safety measures at the copper/nickel mining outfit, TNMC, a subsidiary of the reputable Russian mining giant, Norilsk Nickel.
BMWU, through the union general secretary, Bob Malele, has been scathing in his attack of TNMC for what they termed, flagrant negligence of safety precautions.
The whole affair has seemingly been turned into a war of wits and words.
Ironically, the freak incident occurred a few months after BMWU had petitioned the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources praying that safety at the mine should be improved.
Since the TNMC operation was commissioned in 1995, last week’s fatality raised to four the number of deaths recorded at the TNMC’s Phoenix mine.
In another interview yesterday precipitated by the ongoing inquiry at the mine, which commenced yesterday, Malele was indignant, blaming the TNMC management for its lackadaisical attitude towards safety.
“I was in Francistown this Monday and met the BMWU team that went to the scene of the fatal incident,” explained Malele.
He emphasised that the working environment is dangerous and is diametrically unsafe.
This is the area where workers from Moolmans Aveng, a mining company contracted by TNMC and based at the Phoenix operation, toil day and night.
“There are hanging boulders, which render the area risky to work in. It’s a time bomb waiting to explode anytime,” he said.
He added that about two years ago there was a way of bringing down loose boulders to minimise accidents at the mine.
But decried that now, safety measures are on holiday.
The BMWU team is convinced that the TNMC mining area is dangerous and unless something is done to improve on the safety, more lives are at risk, especially at the mining pit.
Malele traced the reason why the contractor, Moolmans Aveng has not created safety benches in the cut they are mining.
“This area might be high-grade ore and this might have caused them to forget about the safety measures and instead concentrate on extracting the ore,” said Malele.
The TNMC Phoenix operation has been mining low-grade copper/nickel ores due to generally depleting resources. As a solution to the safety issue, Malele is convinced that closing the mining area after the inquiry to ensure safety first will literally keep the employers on their toes.
“Even after the inquiry, we can’t guarantee safety until rock mechanists have inspected and guaranteed the safety for continuity of safe mining,” he said.
Unconfirmed reports raised by Malele suggest that on the fateful night in which Khutsafalo lost his life, “there was no senior qualified person supervising the shift”.
“We hear that upon hearing that there was a fatal accident that is when the senior person showed up,” Malele said.
He queried that although last year, a 30-year-old Chadibe bulldozer operator was killed by the earth-moving machine, which experienced some mechanical faults, it was still in operation, which can be risky.
The BMWU inquiry members at TNMC include national organising coordinator, Abel Bukha and national organising chairperson, Happy Bashe.
“The purpose of the duo at TNMC is to keep an eye on the proceedings and see if the whole process is done fairly,” he explained.
He, however, was worried that whilst BMWU was willing to conduct an independent inquiry into accidents of this nature, it was very expensive to hire experts in related fields to give their independent expert opinions.
Eyewitnesses reported that Moolmans Aveng might have something to hide as those who were on the shift on the fateful night, witnessed panic-stricken employees mishandling the corpse of the young miner.
They were seen loading the deceased’s body onto the back of a dusty Toyota Land Cruiser whilst he was bleeding profusely up to the TNMC clinic.
The ideal procedure would have been to call for the ambulance from the TNMC clinic to come and fetch the injured man.
Moolmans Aveng teams recently showed their prowess in First Aid competitions with their TNMC colleagues, but surprisingly during real-life emergencies chose to break the rules of the game with impunity.
If not nipped in the bud, the attitude has the potential of ruining the reputation of the TNMC safety record and that of Moolmans Aveng mining company.
“By choosing to ignore the laid down procedures, it’s a sign that they were probably hiding something,” said the deceased’s colleague who was still reeling in shock a few days after witnessing the freak accident.
He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
He noted that whoever issued instructions that the deceased’s body be ferried in a “dusty and uncomfortable van to the clinic must be hauled over hot coals to explain his action or non-action.”
Apparently, there is tension between Moolmans Aveng management and members of BMWU at the branch arising from a recent retrenchment exercise that saw about 60 miners losing their jobs.
The employer has apparently started hiring new workers after laying-off some employees a few months ago and this has left the miners believing that the exercise was not done in good faith.
Tebogo Rapitsenyane, TNMC public relations manager, this week distanced TNMC from any blame denying reports that lapse in mine’s safety measures could be the cause of a freak accident that led to Khutsafalo’s death.
Rapitsenyane, the TNMC spin-doctor denied the presence of imminent danger at the Phoenix mine created by hanging rocks.
He added: “ If there were any hanging rocks we would have long seen them and they would have been dealt with. Also, if there are any dangerous areas they are sealed and steps taken to correct the situation.”
He described the mine as a sensitive area subject to random inspections by the Inspector of Mines, which leaves them with no option but to stick to the basic requirements of an operation of TNMC’s magnitude.
He said at the mine, there is a team of experts drawn from across the mine’s departments that deals with issues of safety and compliance and it conducts regular inspections to satisfy itself that there was strict adherence to safety standards.
The PR manager was worried that BMWU, as a stakeholder, was feeding the public with misleading information.
“Safety is very paramount at TNMC and there is no room for laxity as the mine is a high risk area,” he emphasised.
Rapitsenyane said yesterday that the scene of the fatal accident would be sealed until the Inspector of Mines has completed the inspection and the requisite inquiry has also been done.
Moolmans Aveng safety manager, Peter Dioka, yesterday could not shed light on their side of the story claiming that he was locked in a meeting where the inquiry was held.
He would then not pick calls on his mobile.
Human Resources Manager at Moolmans Aveng, Donald Matlhodi, referred all enquiries to the Moolmans Aveng senior contracts manager, Mattheus Gadze, who could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone rang unanswered.