Labour Vanguard

THE mining and farming town ofFochville, in the south of Gauteng, signifies a tale of two cities.

A drive and a first glance intoFochville, near Carletonville, paints a picture of affluence judging by thesize of some of the tiled-roof and face-brick properties. However, hidden atthe back of the town is the township of Kokosi, where present and former mineworkers and their families live.

In the dusty, untarred roads ofKokosi, goats and cattle roam, typical of any rural environment in SA. Thevillage is peppered with informal and formal housing. Puddles of dirty andstagnant water due to lack of drainage systems, make some of the roads unusablefor sedans.

A few kilometres away from Kokosisits some of SA’s biggest gold mines which produce billions of rands inearnings generated partly from the sweat of mine workers. Judging by theconditions under which some of these former mine workers live there is a needto speedily address the issue of unclaimed retirement benefits belonging toformer mine workers.

The conditions also highlight theneed for the Treasury to speed up its retirement reform agenda, which is aimedat encouraging employees to save and provide adequately for retirement.

Some former mine workers are stillwaiting for their full retirement benefits to be paid, some from as far back asthe 1970s. Some have now put their faith in Xulu Attorneys, headed by BarnabasXulu, to recover some of what they say are unpaid retirement benefits.

There is R15bn in unclaimed pensionbenefits, according to the Financial Services Board and about a third of thisis believed to belong to mining pension funds.

Last month Mr Xulu visited some ofthe former mine workers who are still waiting for their retirement benefits, tohear their grievances.

More than 60 former mine workers andrelatives of deceased mine workers filled a classroom to talk about theirproblems.

A number of issues includingretirement pay-outs, health claims and unemployment benefits were raised. MrXulu was further advised to sue government for compensation for the healthailments that some of the labourers sustained from the mines. Some of theformer mine workers, who are below the age of 60, demanded unemploymentbenefits.

On the issue of retirement benefits,Prince Mandlana, a former mine worker who comes from Elliotdale in the EasternCape, says he started working in SA’s mining sector in 1978 in Rustenberg until1987.

He says he still has not been paidhis provident fund and does not have a monthly income.

Mr Mandlana says that in Rustenberghe worked for New State Mines, then owned by Johannesburg ConsolidatedInvestments (JCI).

"It was under apartheid when Istopped working. You were not told how to get your money," Mr Mandlanasays, adding they were not told which provident funds they contributed towards.

He took a break from mining butlater came back in 1998 where he says he worked at AngloGold Ashanti’s MponengMine, previously known as Western Deep Level. He says he worked there until2009. When he stopped working he earned R3,600 a month.

"I also contributed to aprovident fund at Deep Level. I got it. But I’m not sure if it was enough.Where I did not get money is at Rustenberg. At Deep Level I was not happy withthe provident fund. I was given R100,000." Mr Mandlana says no advice wasgiven to him on the possibilities of preserving the money he got. He does nothave an income from his retirement.

For former mine worker Godfrey Moetithe situation seems to be much more dire. He started working in 1982 at theElandsrand Mine near Carletonville, now known as Kusasalethu.

Mr Moeti, who now has to rely ontemporary jobs, says he only got R2,000 when he lost his job in 1996. He saidthe money was from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

He claims to have never received acent from his provident fund contributions after working for more than 10 yearsin the mines.

Mr Moeti stays in an RDP houseandhas a well-organised file with records of his employment. In one of the plasticfile pages is a piece of paper which shows he worked for AngloGold.

Relating his story on how tough itwas in the mines, Mr Moeti says: "My salary (in 1996) was R1,300 a month.When I started in the 1980s I was earning R113 a month. First I worked on thesurface mine. Someone advised me to go and work underground, he said there wasa lot of money. But I was scared. I finally went. It was tough. I can’t evendescribe it. It’s very dark there. You can’t stand underground … your back isalways bent."

He does not know which providentfund he contributed to.

For Ezekiel Ralepile Khunou thingshave been far better, but he says he is still waiting for his provident fund tobe paid. He started working at AngloGold’s Elandsrand Mine in 1983 and workedin the mines until December 2012.

He believes his outstandingprovident fund could be better invested elsewhere for the benefit of hisgrandchildren.