Harmony suspends 77 workers

Sapa | Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:01
[miningmx.com] -- Harmony Gold has suspended 77 employees and 45 contractors from its Free State operations for allegedly helping illegal miners, a company spokeswoman said on Friday.

Spokeswoman Marian van der Walt said most of these employees had helped illegal miners underground with supplies or accepted bribes for access to mining properties.

Illegal miners could pay between R1500 and R2000 to gain access to the mining premises, she said.

Van der Walt said it was found that a food item such as bread could cost up to six times more underground.

Van der Walt said no more bodies were found underground on Friday morning.

This followed the death of 76 illegal miners at Harmony's Eland Shaft operations at Welkom in the past week. Most of the miners were allegedly killed by inhaling poisonous gas after an underground fire started on May 18. They were working in an abandoned area of the mine.

Meanwhile, the unpleasant process of identifying the bodies continued on Friday afternoon.

Free State police spokesman Superintendent Sam Makhele said the process of identifying the victims would continue for the next few days at the state mortuary in Welkom.

He said 34 bodies had been identified by noon on Friday. The victims were mostly Lesotho and South African citizens.

"No more bodies were brought to surface on Friday," he confirmed.

Fifteen more bodies were brought to the surface at Eland Shaft on Thursday after they were left at underground shaft stations by other illegal miners.

A Lesotho government official Sethunya Kaqa, who was at the Welkom state mortuary, said his government had been informed about the number of Lesotho citizens that had died in the incident.

"The families are coming from Lesotho," he said, adding that 26 of the 76 people who died were identified as Lesotho citizens.

Makhele said no arrests had yet been made.

Earlier, police questioned six people in regard to the movement of illegal miners in the Welkom area.

Makhele said they would not be charged in connection with the incidents of the past week.

One of them would, however, face changes of being illegally in the country and be deported.