 More than ten thousand (10‚000) members of the National Union of Mineworkers on Tuesday observed a day of mourning at Gold Fields’ Driefontein mine in Carletonville‚ in honour of five miners who died last week.
Erick Gcilitshana‚ the NUM‘s national secretary for health and safety‚ urged members to attend the event in an effort to highlight safety matters in mines.
“We strongly encourage our members to pitch up in huge numbers and not to take the day off as just another shopping day. We need to send a very strong message on the safety front‚” Gcilitshana said.
Sven Lunsche‚ corporate affairs manager at Gold Fields‚ said the gathering had the support of the company.
“We proving the facilities for this gathering and we fully support it. We are confident it will be peaceful.”
“Gold Fields accepts that there won’t be production today and urges all workers to attend.”
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu‚ NUM president Senzeni Zokwana and NUM general secretary Frans Baleni are expected to address the workers.
The event has been scheduled to begin at 09h00 at the Driefontein Arena‚ at the Driefontein mine in Carletonville.
Meanwhile‚ the NUM said the proto team had failed to extinguish the fire on the 36/31 line as it had jumped onto the 35 level of the mine.
The five deaths caused by the fire was due to smoke inhalation. - I-Net Bridge
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