[miningmx.com] – MINING companies are being urged to change the
conditions of employment so that migrant workers could visit their homes more often,
said news agency Sapa, citing Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa’s deputy president.
Responding to questions in the National Assembly earlier this week, Motlanthe said
the migrant labour system was deepening rural poverty and breaking families. This
had dire consequences for women and children, he added.
It was also depriving communities of human capital because workers were forced to
look for employment outside their traditional homes. The outcome was they lived in
single sex hostels where HIV infections were high, he said.
The migrant system was one of the contributing factors to the Marikana tragegy in
which 34 miners were shot and killed by police, while a total of 46 people lost their
lives on the Lonmin mine, including 40 Lonmin employees.
Motlanthe urged mining companies to allow workers to return to their homes more
frequently for about two weeks and that miners should provide safe transport so they
could get home.
