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An estimated 60 precious lives were lost when miners that included Zimbabweans suffocated in a disused mine in South Africa last week. A total of 27 dead miners have been confirmed to be Zimbabweans from Nkayi, Tsholotsho and Gokwe. The miners are suspected to have died after inhaling poisonous carbon monoxide in the disused Roodepoort Mine in Johannesburg West. An estimated 30 bodies were reportedly still trapped underground and the City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services is reported to have abandoned plans to assist in the rescue operations after detecting high levels of carbon monoxide in one of the shafts.

The disused mines, for a start, are themselves dangerous for anyone to enter and the situation is made worse by the unorthodox methods used by the illegal miners to extract gold such as blasting using dynamites.

It is a fact that there is no control of the mining activities in the disused mines hence the haphazard mining which pays no attention to issues of safety. It is in fact the survival of the fittest underground where groups of miners fight daily as they illegally extract the gold under very dangerous conditions. When the mining companies abandoned the mines, they had realised that the mines had either become dangerous for them to continue mining or it was no longer viable.

The illegal miners are therefore putting their lives at risk by entering these mines. It is unfortunate that Zimbabweans that have left the country for the so called greener pastures are among those individuals risking their lives by trying to eke a living from disused mines.

A total of 27 families have lost their breadwinners in one fell swoop that could have been avoided. It defeats all logic, especially this year when the country received good rains, for Zimbabweans to continue putting their lives at risk by entering the disused mines where groups of miners at times attack each other leading to deaths. The illegal miners also risk being arrested by South African authorities for engaging in illegal mining activities.

We want at this juncture to appeal to Zimbabweans to avoid putting their lives at risk which at the end of the day causes untold suffering to their families back home. Many of the families that lost their loved ones in the Roodepoort Mine cannot afford to repatriate the bodies home for burial.

A funeral parlour, Kings and Queens, has since pledged to assist in the repatriation of the bodies at a cost of R78,000. The parlour’s chief executive officer, Reuben Naran, however, said the serious challenge was that most of the deceased persons did not have proper travel documents
We want to commend the funeral parlour for appreciating that it is in business because of Zimbabweans that are in South Africa and is in a way ploughing back to the communities that have been doing business with it.

It is such gestures that should be emulated by other companies.

We want to also commend partners and friends that have donated an additional R52,000 to assist in the repatriation of the bodies.
Zimbabweans, we want to believe, have drawn some lessons from this tragedy which, as already stated, could have been avoided.