The Lesotho government says its sympathy for the families of illegal miners who perished during a gas leak in Welkom last month must not be mistaken as sympathy for acts of illegality.
This was in response to accusations of economic sabotage levelled by mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe during a television interview last week where he questioned the Lesotho government’s relationship with illegal miners.
Mantashe lashed out at the Lesotho’s mining minister Mohlomi Moleko whom he said had more information about the deaths of 31 illegal miners in a disused shaft in Welkom than he did when the pair met.
He described the relationship between illegal miners and the government of Lesotho as “strange”. "You can’t have Lesotho [government] having some strange relations with illegal miners who are very active in SA and I think that issue is needing attention on its own,” Mantashe told Newzroom Afrika.
Mantashe on Monday conducted a site visit to Harmony Gold's Virginia mine in the Free State where the 31 illegal miners died.
But yesterday, Moleko hit back at Mantashe, saying: “What I want to state categorically is that we are sympathising with the families not with the illegal miners.”
He described his relationship with Mantashe as “perfect” and said that after they met, he sent Mantashe a message saying, “thank you”.
He said he didn’t want to go into detail about the statement Mantashe made on TV last week. Mantashe accused Moleko of not showing much interest in addressing the issue of illegal miners.
Moleko said when he went to the mining indaba in Cape Town in February, he met Mantashe to look at energy issues and mining, but they also touched on the issue of illegal miners.
Moleko said he was the one who initiated the meeting with Mantashe and wanted the two countries to reinforce their relationship on economic issues.
Moleko said there was R42bn worth of unclaimed terminal benefits of miners from SA financial institutions.
He said he told Mantashe that Lesotho should be given about 30% of the R40bn to come up with employment initiatives that would hire Lesotho nationals who are involved in illegal mining in SA.
“I said to him, if you could allow us to pull that money to Lesotho – the R12bn from the asset managers who are holding this money – we would be able to start projects which would be directed towards the miners themselves and things like youth development,” said Moleko, adding that he also met President Cyril Ramaphosa and told him the same thing.
“I was saying it is very simple to address that issue of illegal miners if we have the resources to create those jobs so that that they come back. But for them to come back when we don’t know where they are going is a problem to us, so the simple solution is for them [SA] to discuss the issue of the money and bring it so that we create those jobs.
“I even went to cabinet three months ago to say I need to set up a task team that will collect this money. So, I haven’t taken that thing lightly... the solution is for us to have the resources to set up the means for our people to live.”
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