From Staff Reporter
The ZIMBABWE miners have asked Parliament to help set up a compensation system for members who have died or mutilated in the course of their service.
This follows a fatal mine accident involving a worker at the Zimplats Ngwarati mine in Mhondoro-Ngezi on Sunday.
The worker was one of the contractors who succumbed to injuries at the box cut of the Ngwarati mine after a high wall collapsed.
Speaking of Zimbabwe’s Diamond Allied and Minerals Workers Union of Zimbabwe (ZDAMWU) General Secretary, Justice Chinhema, ZDAMWU said it was “relieved that the rest of the workers who were underground at the time of the tragedy were from the Zimplats Proto Team was evacuated “.
He added that such tragedies strengthen the miners’ group’s determination to see through the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The Ngwarati mine is still under development.
“During this critical phase in a miner’s development process, care and caution must be maximized for the health and safety of workers so that life is not lost in avoidable safety issues,” he said.
Chinhema said this supported their call for a compensation fund.
“As a union we would like to point out again that it is high time to create a compensation fund through a law of the parliament.
“This fund will compensate families of workers who lose their lives due to work accidents or injuries.
“It is difficult to lose a breadwinner in the family. Families remain stranded when the breadwinner dies, so accidents like these are eye-opening insofar as a compensation fund is more critical today than ever.
“The government aims to have a mining economy of $ 12 billion. This can only be achieved if our mines have healthy workers,” he said.
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