Swords have been drawn between former Assmang Black Rock workers and mine management over a wage dispute not settled years back. The ex-workers are oozing fire over unpaid overtime that went for several years without being paid.

When the demand was raised, the management, as alleged, showed them the door to their respective villages dotted around the region and police dogs were used to accompany them unceremoniously.

About seventy-five ex-mine workers and widows mobilised at Ga-Segonyana Town Hall on July 24, 2018 where they agreed that on August 6, 2018 they will be protesting at the mine and an application was submitted on July 30, 2018. They believe mines in the region understand protests better than the consultative process.   

“The incident took place in 1987 when we were demanding for the increase and overtime never paid. We were around 1500 permanent workers. We had one and a half hours of overtime never paid for about nine years and when we raised the issue, they didn’t want to listen. The management told us to go and they meant it unreservedly.

“When the forceful retrenchment happened, dogs were used to chase us away from the mine to Matlhapeng village where we continued to raise our dissenting voices to the mine and its headquarters in Sandton and Pretoria. In Johannesburg we met Mr John Steenkamp, then director and Mr Deon Peters the human resources manager of the mine.

It was after that meeting which resulted in the two managers offering us R3000 to the concerned ex-workers. We turned the offer down and they upped it to R10000 which was equally turned down.

Then a R40000 was offered but we then quizzed them about what that amount was for, said Mr Shadreck Sejake.” “This is what the mine is offering you,” was the answer.

It is alleged that only surviving ex-workers were paid this amount while families of the deceased were left out in the cold in 2008 and 2015 -16 respectively.

During the retrenchment exercise, most workers were forced out of the mine premises leaving all their belongings, because the eviction was extremely violent of nature. These workers want to be compensated for their belongings they left at the mine and severance packages.

As most of the 1500 ex-workers did not get the R40 000 payout, they now want it and have been trying to meet the management but without success.