The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has expressed shock at the increasing number of fatal incidents in the Limpopo province’s mines this week.
It reports that three mineworkers died at the IvanPlats mine, near Mokopane, on September 14. It is alleged that a cable broke while the cage was in motion.
The NUM says it has been denied access to the security checkpoint to form part of the preliminary investigations.
In another incident on September 13, another employee died after inhaling gases at the Modikwa platinum mine, the union says.
NUM North East regional secretary Phillip Mankge says the NUM believes “the fatalities and injuries that are happening in the mining industry in South Africa are as a result of the mining companies pricing the loss of human life into their business model”.
"It is unacceptable that mineworkers are denied their basic human right to work in an environment that guarantees their safety and that, instead, they are expected to go to work to die," he says.