S. Africa Shooting Exposes Miners' Living Conditions

Emilie Iob
August 26, 2012

IKEMELENG, South Africa — The shock, the mourning, and now the questions 10 days after the shoot-out in a South African platinum mine in which police killed 34 striking miners. The tragedy laid bare the harsh living conditions of the workers and the growing anger in the mines.

The sound of machines at the mine can be heard from the miners' shacks, in the what is called the platinum belt. It is here, 100 kilometers west of South Africa's capital city Pretoria, that 80 percent of the world's platinum is dug out.

Walking back home after eight hours of work, Nicolas is tired. Since last year, the 26-year-old miner spends his days in the dark, hundreds of meters underground. He says accidents can happen very fast.

"Down there, there is a lot of injuries," he said. "Even the hanging walls, sometimes, the rocks falling, something like that.

Ten-thousand people live in Ikemeneng township. Miners, like Nicolas, earn around $500 a month working for nearby mining companies, such as AngloAmerican. They also get a living allowance of around $200 a month, not enough to find a decent accommodation close to the mine and avoid transportation costs. So the vast majority of them prefer sending money to their families and live in nearby shacks.

Norman Thobeli has been working here for eight years. He says despite the frustration many miners feel, companies will always find a ready workforce.

"The conditions sometimes, you find workers, you find yourself sometimes working in unsafe place, and there is no way that you can deny sometimes, because you need to work there," he said.

His shack has no electricity, no running water, and the outside toilet is shared with two other families.