Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo Firstly, the search is on for 200 000 ex-mineworkers who are owed 5 Billion Rand in unpaid benefits.

Creamer: Yes, this is an incredible story and you wonder why people who have provident funds and why people who have occupational disease and long-service awards, don’t collect them when they leave.  What happens is people seem to decipate into neighbouring states as well. 

We are talking about 200 000 people, they say 100 000 of them aren’t even aware that they are owed money.  Now this is R5-billion.  Some of the people who are disabled and sick stand to gain up to R500 000.  I mean, these are not small amounts, and those with ten and fifteen years service for their provident fund, they are talking about hundreds of thousands of rands that are due to them. 

There are also people that make the long distance trek up here and they have to go through the laborious process of this paper work.  Others are so desperate they send third parties up to collect this.  These people have been known to take half the money or more than half the money. 

So now the search is on to do it correctly and of course the new Pensions Act is demanding this, and also the new Pensions Act says this money is earning interest, so that interest, you must use some that, or you may use some of that, to trace these missing people, because it is costly to trace some of these people. 

Wanting to take up the challenge is the 112-year old Teba, which has got 1.5 million people on its database.  From the early Eighties those were all electronified so they are easy to get to , but when it goes earlier than the Eighties, it’s a bit of a problem, so  they are looking for a budget now to get out there and get this money to these people which will be a fantastic thing, and also, wanting this done quickly is the new Southern Africa Trust, which is being boosted by the Ford Foundation saying this can be part of poverty alleviation, we’ve got to get out there and get this money to the people.

Kamwendo: Lots of money, lots of people could benefit. Now another issue, South African economy could suffer a massive opportunity loss if the strike-hit Platinum industry is crippled.

Creamer: This is something that has to be driven home to South Africans and future generations will condemn us if we don’t use this fantastic window of opportunity that we have with our platinum and it’s not only the export of the platinum into the world that gives us a lot of money. 

The window of opportunity is now also wide open to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and simultaneously to obtain a source of clean zero-emission electricity through the development of platinum-using fuel cells.  As we sit here, you and I, the taxpayers of South Africa, are funding research on this, the government has seen this in the distance and created what we know as Hydrogen South Africa. 

This is a research body which is sitting at the University of Cape Town and at Mintek, studying up what we can do to get into this fuel-cells business off the ground, because many countries are looking at developing fuel cells at the moment. 

This is the power of the future, but I can tell you that we’ve already developed a fuel cell which is economically competitive, and that has been done through this Hydrogen SA which you, the taxpayer and me have been funding and co-funding. 

So they are saying, “we’ve got this product, we are ready to go out, but you know the strike situation creates security of supply issues”, the world is saying “ are we going to get this plan and”, they start looking at alternatives,  scientists are like that, if they think the price of something is going to rocket through strike action, prolonged strike action, they look for alternatives. 

We must not allow them to do this, because billions of rands are waiting there to be earned, not only in the creation of sending out the platinum and fuel cell development, but also the supply chain that backs that.  You know there is such a lot in the supply chain that can be done, we’ve got to get into this first ahead of other countries. Why?  Because we host 80% of the world’s platinum.

Kamwendo: Common sense, it would seem.  And finally, ugly mined out areas can now be rehabilitated and in one season thanks to new technology.

Creamer: This is incredible, often you go into the coal areas particularly, and this is a coal story because it has been developed by Anglo America’s thermal coal business. 

They have developed and patented a bioconversion technologywhich can do in six months what mother nature takes 60 years to do.  This is because they found a way of combining funguses and weathered coal to create almost primeval fertiliser. 

The very fertiliser that makes plant life exist, they’ve managed to get out of this, chance mixing of this weathered coal and funguses they get organisms that give you the acids that are almost pre-historic that create plant life.  When they put these into position you get in one season what would normally take 60 seasons to do. 

They have patented it, they have trialed it on four mines, and the big thing is that you are going to save hundreds of millions of rands, because to try and rehabilitate these pits and also the discard dumps, you formerly required a lot of top soil which costs you an arm and a leg. 

This is minimalistic when it comes to top soil, precious when it comes to restoring things.  You resurrect the life almost immediately.  When these mines are finished now, they can now bring the community in to be economically active almost immediately because of what this does, the transformation, the resurrection that this new bio-conversion technology can create.

Kamwendo: Would it then be worthwhile for miners to just be pro-active and whether their name is perhaps on a list somewhere.  How would they go about doing that?

Creamer: The best thing they can do is to get into Teba Limited that is headed by a Dr James Motlatsi, he’s former 40 cents a shift worker, he is a real mineworker, so he’s down there with them, he wants to get this money. 

They are, of course, looking for a budget to get the go ahead.  I think that is what they should do.  Get in touch with Teba or get in touch with the Chamber of Mines. 

They estimate that about 100 000 of them are aware that there is money owed to them, and they should come and get it.  There are another 100 000 of them who are blissfully unaware.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, he’ll be back with us at the same time next week.