NUM brands asbestos move as irresponsible
March 22, 2007
By Ronnie Morris
Cape Town - The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has labelled as irresponsible a plan by a French multinational mining company to move 240 families to Penge, a former mining village heavily contaminated with brown asbestos, a known carcinogen.
Company spokesperson Zoliswa Mzinjelwa last week confirmed that Segorong village in Limpopo would be moved because the Annesley andalusite mine had run out of reserves and its mining licence permitted it to mine elsewhere.
However, managing director Dirk van den Heever said the village would not be moved to Penge but about 5km away.
NUM parliamentary co-ordinator Fred Gona said the firm must first rehabilitate the abandoned asbestos mine.
The company "must find an alternative place for those people. The municipality will have to intervene." Gona added that the mine's licence did not allow it to expose people to danger.
Phuti Seloba, the Limpopo department of health spokesperson, said an environmental impact assessment had to be done before people could be moved to Penge.
Richard Spoor, a lawyer representing the Roka Malepi tribal authority, said chieftainess Kgosigadi Malepi was very concerned. She had been trying to engage with the parent company, French multinational Imerys, for over a year.
"Our impression is that Imerys and its South African subsidiary, Rhino Minerals, are intent on making a deal that maximises their profits and prejudices local people," Spoor said.
"There will be no mining on the farm Annesley at the andalusite mine at Segorong until and unless they discuss the tribe's interests in good faith."
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