slow motion disaster
The forgotten miners of Aurora
Former workers at Grootvlei gold mine have received no compensation for at least eight years. Now a small group of them have won what is possibly a pyrrhic victory against the owners, including Khulubuse Zuma
Khulubuse Zuma has visited the abandoned Pamodzi Gold hostels at Grootvlei mine just once since the operation closed its doors for good in 2010. "I don’t know what he came to do there, because he didn’t get out of the car," says former mineworker Albert Aphane. "It was in 2013. He came here, making the draai [turn] there. I think he wanted to see if the people stayed." Aphane points to the dirt road that curves around the small, dilapidated houses and blue gum trees at the abandoned mine on the edge of Springs on Johannesburg’s East Rand. Indeed, the people have stayed. But that was the last time these hostel residents caught sight of Zuma, the nephew of former president Jacob Zuma and a director of Aurora Empowerment Systems. Aurora acquired Pamodzi Gold’s East Rand and Orkney operations in 2009 after Pamodzi was placed under provisional liquidation. However, the funds for the acquisition never materialised, and the mines’ assets deteriorated due to disuse and lack of maintenance. ...
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