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Whinsley Masara Chronicle Reporter
ANTI-RIOT police had to be called to restore order at Old Nic Mine in Killarney, Bulawayo after about 200 former employees protested against non-payment of severance packages. There was a tense standoff recently when the former workers marched around the main gate demanding that the employer should come out of the mine premises with reasonable answers concerning what they are owed.

The demonstration almost turned nasty when a section of the workers decided to go to the offices to drag out Mike Rust, the mine manager. The mine authorities had to call in the anti-riot police. A former worker, Tryagain Mafa, said police eventually escorted Rust to the main gate where he addressed them.

“We asked him when we would get our salaries and if it was possible to sell idle machinery to raise the money,” said Mafa. In response Rust said: “The Director of operations has said he can’t promise a date when you’ll get your salaries.

“He said it isn’t possible to sell any machinery to get your monies as the company is working out something,”he said. In October the mine sent more than 200 workers home, following a Zesa directive to reduce power consumption by 25 percent.

Olympus Golden Mines Limited, which owns Old Nic Mine, Golden Quarry Mine in Shurugwi, Venice Mine in Kadoma and Turk Mine in Inyathi, announced that it was sending all the workers at the Bulawayo mine on unpaid leave.

It said it had placed the mine under care and maintenance. In a letter dated October 26, 2015 and addressed to the works council, the mining company’s chief executive officer, Ian Saunders indicated that Old Nic Mine had been put under extreme operating pressure.

“In the last two months or so, two issues have come to the fore that have put the mine under extreme operating pressure. The first was the directive from Zesa that all mines should reduce their power consumption by 25 percent and second was the tragic accident in the shaft at Old Nic,” reads part of the letter.

Saunders said management could not say for how long the workers would be on unpaid leave as the mines inspectors had not given them the green light to open the closed shaft.