I DON'T like the taste, smell or feel of what's going on in Springs, Ekurhuleni where more than 500 mineworkers have been stuck underground since Sunday, 22 October.
The story is that two labour unions - the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) - are at loggerheads over recognition as the primary union at the mine.
The employer, GoldOne, is not saying much except that they went to court to interdict a planned strike by Amcu.
Amcu wanted to picket against what they say is unfair treatment they're receiving from the mine, who are allegedly refusing to recognise them as the main union after having toppled NUM in as far as the number of members is concerned.
So far, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has been silent as a lamb while the DA has condemned what is widely termed as a hostage situation.
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The president of the country, who has a better experience of what could happen if a situation like this is not managed properly, has also been missing in action.
I don't want to sound like an alarmist but having hundreds of people spending so many days underground is not an ideal situation. It's at this point that cool heads and proper leadership is needed to avoid another Marikana.
Mzansi has seen enough mass life losses, with the last one being more than 70 souls who perished in a dilapidated building fire in the centre of Joburg.
Their deaths could've been avoided if it were not for greedy and corrupt politicians and officials.
All parties concerned in this GoldOne debacle must just take their oversized egos and seal them in bottles before dispensing them in the deep freezer so they can approach the matter with sober minds. If not, then I'm afraid we will have more blood on our hands.
We have seen this movie before, and this script isn't different from others before.
The situation, fresh as it may seem, is ripe for another mass tomb. I call on everyone involved, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, to stop playing with ordinary people's lives and treat this situation as a crisis. Now!
