There was a heavy police presence at Gold One Mine’s Modder East operations where some 446 mine workers came to surface after being holed up underground in what was initially reported to be a sit-in only for mine management, unions and the government to categorise it as a hostage situation after it emerged there were employees among the group who were held against their will and were being threatened as well as assaulted.
The National Union of Mineworkers promptly distanced itself from the action with the Association of Mining Construction Workers Union doing the same on Sunday.
AMCU said on the third of the situation that it was aware that employees at Gold One wanted to be represented by it and that it had discouraged the use of criminal methods.
Scores waited outside the mine on Monday morning and amongst them was Julia Ngobeni who said she hadn’t heard from her husband since he went down the shaft on Thursday evening.
Ngobeni said the past four days had been the most difficult of her life as she had to rely on heresy for information on her husband.
“I left for work on Thursday morning knowing he’d go in for the night shift. He usually calls when he knocks off and when he arrives at home to say ‘ I’m home’ but this time he didn’t and his phone was unavailable when I tried calling him,” she said flanked by relatives.
“Ngobeni said the weekend was particularly unbearable. “ me and the children were not eating, we couldn’t, we just had tea while waiting and stressed. It’s not nice when someone is not home especially the head of the house,” she said.
Some 20 or so of them are said to have needed medical attention.
Another woman who did not want to be identified said she hoped her man would come out well since he easily gets sick. “He easily gets anxious and such a situation could trigger any illness. I hope he’s well,” said the distraught woman.