Helping out former Aurora mineworkers

Solidarity Helping Hand has set up an Aurora Emergency fund from which we conduct several projects.  Some of these include:

From June 2011, assisting all interested former mine workers to draft professional CV’s and distributing those CV’s to relevant employers. In June the group were assisted and received advice on how to compile a good CV to re-enter the labour market. Despite food and clothing which are regularly distributed, this project is the first practical action of the Solidarity Movement’s rescue plan for the former Aurora employees.

Working with Workforce Staffing to place workers in available positions on other mines. The Movement regularly informs former employees who are still unemployed about possible job opportunities. The Solidarity Movement is closely involved with the Springs community which is still struggling to get back on its feet, after 5 300 jobs were destroyed as a result of the Aurora debacle. The Movement’s involvement over the past year has already started to bear fruit.Pierre Pitzer of personnel agency Workforce Staffing informed interested members of the community about job opportunities in the rest of the country and stressed that they should consider other options than the mine where they had worked for many years in order to earn a living.

Doing entrepreneurs training for 8 people from the Springs community (4 of them former mine workers). The entrepreneur training facilitated by Helping Hand’s WerkNet has already yielded promising results. Marietjie Smit, Head of WerkNet, referred to Thuli Shelembe who expanded her natural and herbal medicine business following the training, leading to her business attracting interest from universities. Margaret Rayner took her cake business to a new level and now markets it with pride, after her family relied on food parcels and other people’s kindness to get by for a long time. Her husband worked without getting paid for a year and has already been unemployed for a year.

Handing out food parcels, blankets and clothing. The Solidarity Movement (the trade union Solidarity, Solidarity Helping Hand and AfriForum) in November tried to instil hope among several former Aurora employees and their families in the Springs community before the start of the Christmas season.  “It is simply outrageous that it was necessary to hand out food parcels to 40 families today, as court documents we studied this week contain evidence of how the Aurora directors and consultants enriched themselves. They are living in complete luxury, while former Aurora employees find themselves in dire circumstances,” Gideon du Plessis, Deputy General Secretary of Solidarity, said.

Du Plessis regularly informs the community about the latest developments regarding Aurora’s liquidation. The trade union has already submitted claims regarding the former employees’ unpaid salaries, but Du Plessis said that they are likely to receive only a small portion of their arrears salaries once the process has been finalised.

“From the investigation into the alleged corruption in which Aurora Empowerment Systems was involved, it became clear that the directors never intended to use the mines for mining, but to finance other businesses. There is evidence that the directors sold gold to the value of R122 million and pocketed the money,” according to Du Plessis.

Du Plessis also gave more details concerning a possible buyer for the Grootvlei mine. The buyer may be able to employ a number of former Aurora employees. He nonetheless cautioned the community to not pin all its hopes on this possibility and to be on the lookout for other job opportunities.

At the same event, civil rights organisation AfriForum provided the community with more information regarding a ten-point plan to deal with acid mine drainage in the area. The plan involves, among other things, an investigation into the level of underground water and water-purification methods. More information in this regard can be found at www.groenforum.co.za.

*To contribute to Solidarity’s emergency fund for the former Aurora employees, phone the Solidarity service centre on 0861 25 24 23 or SMS the word “hand” to 34388.