Workers in the pits as mines shut

Johannesburg - Vicky Shereef (40) runs a supermarket in Louisville – a rural village situated in a scenic gold-rich valley near Barberton in Mpumalanga.

Shereef’s face-brick business – Louisville Supermarket & Hardware – is the main shop in the village.

About a kilometre or so behind it, there is Lily Gold Mine, which is the biggest employer for the locals.

Further south lies Lily’s sister mine, Barbrook.

Both mines belong to Australian company, Vantage Goldfields Limited.

Shereef had a gold mine of his own in Lily and Barbrook workers, but faced a turnaround in fortune when Lily mine was shut down on February 5 last year and placed under business rescue following the collapse of a shaft.

Barbrook was also shut down in December following crippling workers’ protest actions and placed under business rescue.

He flashes a stack of six A5 notebooks behind his counter.

“This is a list of all the mine workers who have been taking grocery on credit … about 100 people,” Shereef said.

Staring at the notebooks momentarily, Shereef shook his head, and said: “They owe me over R90 000.”

Shereef had established trust with the workers and had been comfortable giving them groceries on credit.

Now, he is left with a deficit on his books, which he is not sure will ever be paid.

“They have no money,” he tries to empathise.

“They can’t pay because the mine has been closed down. Business has been bad. There are farm workers around but they don’t earn much and don’t give us business,” Shereef said.

The mine closures are being felt in the whole community and, besides the mines, there are no other major employers in the area.

Workers are loitering and hoping for good news that the mines will be reopened.

Brick-making businesses and spaza shops are also feeling the pinch and teetering on the brink of collapse.

Business rescue practitioner Rob Devereux has been trying to lure investors to revive the mines but, so far, no deal has been sealed.

Lily Gold Mine needs a R200 million bailout.

This money will be used to open a new shaft for gold digging to resume and retrieve a container office that got buried with three workers – Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyerende – when the mine sank.

Part of the investment – R4.4 million – would be paid as compensation to the bereaved families (R200 000 each) and 75 workers (R50 000 each) who were trapped underground.

The mine has 4.9 million tons of ore gold in reserves, which could keep Louisville’s economy vibrant for another decade.

Devereux is talking to four potential investors, he told City Press, and one funder has agreed to invest $15 million (about R200 million) to reopen the mine.

“Reserve Bank approval has been acquired by the company to do the transaction. A setback has occurred which is currently being addressed. We cannot commit to timing of the flow of funds,” Devereux said.

Barbrook is a smaller mine that needs expansion, according to Devereux.

It needs a R100 million investment.

Barbrook Mine found itself in distress after Lily Mine was mothballed as it had to absorb additional costs, including 100 of Lily Gold Mine’s 900 workers.

Gladness Zulu (54) runs a spaza shop made of planks along the pot-holed tar road, which splits into rugged gravel street roads in Louisville.

Zulu sells bread, soft drinks and smaller items such as eggs.

Like Shereef, Zulu also has a sad story related to the closure of the mines.

“No one comes to buy bread for the whole day,” she says – pointing at five loaves packed neatly on a shelf.

“If you think about it, there was someone who used to buy bread everyday but now he can’t afford. That’s a person who needs the bread,” Zulu says.

“Bread stays here until it becomes stale and a bag of potatoes also stays a week and they rot,” she added.

Zulu says she is now struggling to feed her own family. She looks after four grandchildren.

Bonginkosi Dlamini – a brick maker, and building sand and stone seller – told City Press that he used to lag behind in supplying his brick customers but now business has slowed down.

“People were working and building houses. I used to have orders I struggled to cope with,” Dlamini said.

He had developed trust with his customers and gave them bricks on credit, but now they cannot pay him.

“The mines were also buying from me, but now things are just too slow,” Dlamini said.

“Since I started four years ago, I’ve been doing good [until now].”

Under a tree, near Shereef’s business, a group of men usually congregate to avoid the searing Lowveld sun and plot their way out of poverty or pass time.

These are Lily Gold Mine and Barbrook workers whose services have been suspended while Devereux looks for funding.

They used to sustain Louisville’s economy, but now survive on hand-outs.

They last got grocery vouchers from the South African Social Security Agency in December.

The Association of Mine and Construction Workers Union also delivered groceries once while the Gift of the Givers did the same for a few months.

The workers blame Vantage Goldfield’s management for their plight.

They are disturbed after hearing rumours that management was planning a memorial event for their three colleagues who have been buried for 12 months.

They gawk and complain when they see the mine and security company’s vehicles driving past.

“Where do they get the money?” asks Skhumbuzo Lukhele (33) who worked at Barbrook.

“If they say the mines are under business rescue because they’ve no money, where do they get money for diesel and to pay the security company [looking after the mine’s assets]?” Lukhele added.

Lukhele is a breadwinner for his family in Pienaar outside Mbombela.

He has a mother, three school-going siblings and his own child.

Lukhele has a maroon Audi but it is visibly battered.

When asked how he makes ends meets, he sighs: Hey man, I have this car. I use it as a taxi and collect R10 from each passenger going to Low’s Creek [a nearby village].

“But it’s not enough and the car breaks down,” Lukhele said.

Sandile Nkosi (46) – who has a decrepit Mazda 323 – has been working at Lily Mine as a plant operator since 2012.

His situation is just as dire.

Nkosi has a wife and three children aged 21, 13 and eight to support, but he last got paid in March last year.

He has a strong view about how this situation should be handled.

“Government must take the mine’s licence and give it to people who are serious about operating the mine. I’m surprised a mine could operate for many years and suddenly claim it has no money,” Nkosi said.

Simon Mhlabane (63) also has the same view as Nkosi that Vantage Goldfield licence should be revoked.

Mhlabane had been working at Barbrook for five years.

“My life is ruined because they are dishonest.

“They let us work knowing that their money was running out,” he said.