Three BCL miners killed in ground fall
Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday July 23, 2015 09:04
The bodies of two of the three victims were recovered on Sunday afternoon, while the other body was recovered on Monday afternoon.
Sources close to the incident, said that the victims were recovered about eight metres beyond the point prohibited for access by any employee, which they said showed negligence on the part of management.
The issue of proper supervision has since surfaced, fuelling speculation that the deceased would not have gone to the prohibited area if they had proper supervision. The accident brings to six the total number of fatalities that have been recorded at the mine this year.
The mining company is however still awaiting the report by the Inspector of Mines to establish the cause of the accident to determine the appropriate action to take.
The victims of the latest incident are 26-year-old Andrew Ofentse of Tumasera and 32-year-old Obonetse Jim of Mahalapye who both worked as machinemen, as well as 29-year-old Tebogo Josiah from Damuchujenaa, who worked as a miner in charge. After recovery, the badly decomposed bodies were taken to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital for post-mortem yesterday. The arrangement in Damuchujenaa was that the body be buried immediately upon arrival. The Ofentse family has arranged with the mortuary to transport their son’s remains to Tumasare today, where he will also be buried promptly.
BCL public relations and marketing manager James Molosankwe said that the recorded six accidents are disturbing, considering that they all occurred in a space of seven months.
Molosankwe also said that the Inspector of Mines is currently conducting investigations surrounding the accident, adding that BCL endeavours to implement the recommendations of the report in an effort to reclaim the status of a safe mine. He added that he could not give any preliminary indications of what could have led to the accident. “I am currently hamstrung but with progress of time we will have probable suggestion of what could have happened,” he said. Molosankwe however noted that despite the accidents, the mine still aspires to achieve a four million fatality free shift in the future. He said the mine started the rescue process immediately the three employees got trapped while working at 853 metre level stope at Selebi shaft.
Molosankwe noted that the mine counsellors have contacted the victims’ families to engage them and assist them cope with their loss.
“The mine’s wellness team is also working with employees who have been exposed to the incident to help them manage the trauma,” he said. Molosankwe said they are worried about the accident especially that BCL has been a safe mine that also achieved a significant reduction in lost time injury frequency rate that stood at 0.38 at the end of 2014.
He added that the mine has protocols in place to improve safety as well as behaviour based initiatives to eliminate risk behaviours in the workplace. Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Ofentse family in Tumasera, Phenyo Kgosiitsile said what happened to their son is heartbreaking and a huge loss as he was still young and ambitious.
“There is nothing we can do except to accept that it happened. We are happy with the cooperation we received from BCL mine as they are with us throughout and they have fulfilled all their obligations under these circumstances,” he said. Kgosiitsile said the mine officials informed them about the accident on Saturday afternoon. “They told us that they are doing their best to locate the victims. We waited until Sunday when they updated us on their search and we remained patient because we only believed that the victims were just trapped and would be recovered alive,” he said.
The family was informed that Ofentse had died on Monday, whereupon they requested to see his remains to ascertain that it was indeed their son. “The mine was not keen to allow us to see the body because of the state it was in, but we insisted on seeing it and satisfied ourselves that it was him only through the dreadlocks,” he said. Kgosiitsile said the mine on the other hand verified his identity through the mine number that also reflected on his mine lamp.
Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) general secretary Bob Malele said that their preliminary observation has revealed that the affected drilling crew was working in a high-risk area and even management was aware that the area was unsafe but instructed the drill crew to drill inside nonetheless. “The shift boss failed to monitor the drilling exercise closely. The use of the jackhammer forced the victims to work from inside the high risk area as they could not operate it from a safe distance and the location of the bodies and the equipment confirms this,” he explained.
Malele also said that the location of the body of the miner in charge also showed the system of charging explosives to an unavoidable risk, as he had to physically go to the hole to charge.
He also said the area was not barricaded showing that it was treated as a normal working area and machine-men had no authority to make the area safe before anybody could go in. “Such authority falls within the jurisdiction of the top management. Junior officers cannot refuse instructions to work in a high-risk area without risking loss of jobs. “The safety of BCL employees is substandard and needs to be improved. BCL must be compelled to upgrade its safety systems because it neglects effective application and enforcement of safety programmes,” he said.