Youths under the umbrella of Makuya Concerned Youth are outraged over what they allege to be gross nepotism by the mine management of the Exxaro Tshikondeni Coal Mine.

Matters came to a head recently, when youths from the village held a meeting with the management and were told that the mine did not dictate whom the sub-contractors should hire.

The Concerned Youth claim that the mine, which is situated in their area, is not doing anything to empower the youth. They say they held several meetings with management, trying to voice their concerns, but each time they failed to convince them

The mine is run on a subcontracting basis and the subcontractors look for their workforce from outside Makuya, even if the youth from the area have the necessary qualifications, a spokesperson for the Makuya Concerned Youth said.

The mine is also alleged not to do anything in terms of empowering students from tertiary institutions with training. They are alleged to train those who are part of their bursary scheme, who are all from outside the village.

A youth leader in the area, Ndivhuho Phandavhudzi, said they had had enough of the mine after trying “to talk sense” to the mine, without success. “We are very disturbed by the actions of the management of the mine. They do not seem to have the interests of the youth in our locality at heart, as they continue hiring people from outside our villages,” he said.

Phandavhudzi said out of the more than 1 000 employees at the mine, only 12 were from the village, with only 16 employed by subcontractors. “This is an insult to us as youth. Imagine that out of the 18 villages at Makuya, we only have this number employed. The mine belongs to us as the owners of the land, but we are not even benefiting from its proceeds,” he said. According to Exxaro Tshikondeni mine manager, Mr Stephen Badenhorst, the Tshikondeni Mine employs 78 permanent employees (of a workforce of 745) and 42 contractors (of 436 contractors) residing in the Makuya Traditional Council.

Phandavhudzi added that the management of the mine should come to its senses and employ youths from the area. He added that, recently, posts were advertised, with only Grade 12 and computer literacy as the requirements. “We had thought that they would be for our youth as most of them do have those requirements, but we were told that the posts would be given to people who are in the employment of the mine. We demand that our youth be given first priority in those positions,” he said.

Meanwhile, youths from the area have decided to seek help from the head office of the company in Gauteng, as the local office could not assist them. “This is our last attempt and if we receive no audience from the head office, we will be forced to use the language that is understood in our country, the toyi toyi,” they said.

Badenhorst said they had held several meetings with the concerned youths. He said they had met on July 23 and discussed the issues that were raised by the youths. “We are in constant touch with the local youth and we are looking at ways of assisting them. They should be shown how the mine operates and the channels they have to follow in accessing bursaries and programmes,” he said.

Badenhorst said they are ready to meet any group who felt they had an issue with the mine. “Recently we have met another group from the same community, which claims to be the legitimate mouth of the youth. We listen to all of them and see how we can assist each other,” he said. He added that youth from the Makuya Area are able to apply for positions being advertised externally, if they meet the required job criteria. It has been agreed by Exxaro that the advertisements for such positions will be forwarded to the Traditional Council to ensure that they are being made aware of such position.