SABC News reports that more than 1200 mineworkers from Ekapa Minerals in Kimberley are still battling to receive salaries and other payments due to them since February this year. That’s after the mine suffered a mud-rush incident in the same month, which claimed the lives of five mineworkers.

After the mud-rush incident the mine then applying for liquidation – a 150 years of a legacy of diamond mining came to an abrupt end and many of the workers, the 1 200 workers that lost the jobs, here are saying they are sitting destitute and hoping that maybe someone would come forth and reopen the mine in the near future.

Now, relief drives in the form of concerts and funding by community organisations and the Northern Cape government are taking place.

Concert organiser Mari Venter says, “There are about 24 artists performing. Everything is sponsored. They are doing it voluntarily. Also, it was important to help the families, I mean they were without salaries, they cannot plan, their pension funds are frozen, so they are all vulnerable financially. I had a food drive. Previously, we contacted all the schools and churches, and they got food from the community. I was able to give approximately 450 families food parcels worth R1750.”

by Keith Sayster