For former Malawian miners, the 33-year wait for their South African wages continues

It has been 33 years since a group of Malawian workers returned from their mining work in South Africa – and they are still waiting to be paid.

“We are in extreme poverty, we have not educated our children, and now we are old,” John Mizati, president of the former miners of Chisomo, told RFI.

Malawians flocked to apartheid South Africa between the 1960s and 1980s in search of greener pastures and worked in the mines under the umbrella of the Africa Temporary Employment Office (TEBA ). This was done as part of a bilateral agreement with the South African and Malawian governments.

In March 1988, the Malawian government withdrew from TEBA because Malawian citizens were discriminated against – South African employers claimed they were spreading HIV and AIDS in South Africa.

Demonstrate for their salary

On a cold day last month in Malawi’s commercial center, Blantyre, a number of elderly ex-miners from the southern region took to the streets, demanding their back wages.

Protesters, many of whom are clearly over 60, gathered at Kamuzu Upper Stadium, putting their lives at risk during the third wave of Covid-19 in Malawi.

They marched to Blantyre City Council to hand over a petition while singing songs and carrying signs saying, “Enough is enough!” Give us our money back.

Old aged miners took to the streets for those who couldn’t walk, some of them former minors maimed because of their work in South Africa.

“Some were amputated, others had their hands and legs cut off while on duty in South African mines,” Mizati said.

Government help?

They have vowed to keep protesting until they get their money, Mizati said, adding that the Malawi government should investigate where their money is going. They hope to meet with the President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, to ask for his help.

“We understand that previous regimes have not granted us our benefits,” Mizati said.

This is not the first protest organized by former miners – they have also taken to the streets under previous administrations.

During his presidential campaign in 2020, Chakwera pledged to address the issue of their missing wages.

“He should also investigate the former presidents on how they handled our money,” Mizati added.

At the Chazunda market, about 45 km from Blantyre, RFI spoke with another person affected by the missing wages.

Life has been tough for 58-year-old Odeta Donasiyano, a widow, whose husband was one of the Malawian miners who never got paid. Although not part of the walk, she agreed with the feelings of Mizati and the miners.

“We would like the government to give us our money. I have smart kids but they dropped out of school because I didn’t pay their school fees, ”said the mother of seven. She was on her way to visit her youngest son, Emmanuel, at the boarding school.

While her husband was away to South Africa, she could not afford school fees, as well as to shelter and house her children. Her only income comes from her small farm.

“My other six children dropped out of school and they ended up devoting their efforts to other activities like trading and farming,” she said.

Donasiyano said his children did not go to college even though they were selected. And now her youngest son will have to drop out of high school due to lack of money.

She said she was one of the few women in the group to travel to South Africa to apply for benefits in 2019.

The South African government is complicit in the loss of wages, according to the former miners.

The South African Chamber of Mines, now known as the South Africa Minerals Council, hired Alexander Forbes, South Africa’s largest pension fund administrator, to handle the disbursement of funds to all beneficiaries on the funds. revenues of mining companies. But a large number of miners in Malawi have yet to receive anything.

Trying to understand the delay

According to Labor Deputy Minister Vera Kamtukule, 81 former miners will be paid by the Malawi Contingency Fund directly to their bank accounts by electronic money transfer.

“The government of Malawi will have no role to play in paying beneficiaries,” Kamtukule said.

The Malawian government has revealed that supporting documents from beneficiaries or relatives of deceased minors are needed to complete the process.

It is difficult for the Malawian and South African governments to follow these allegations, said George Phiri, professor of political science at the University of Livingstonia in Ekwendeni.

Phiri blamed the weak regional framework and complicated relations with the apartheid South African government for delaying the process for the past 33 years.

He said Malawi did not seriously implement national or international labor laws. The laws of the time only affected civil servants in Malawi. There was no precedent for Malawians working outside the country.

The Malawian government is to blame for poor record keeping which has made it difficult to monitor minors’ pensions. To make matters worse, the miners struggled to inform the government of what had happened, he said.

“The literacy levels were so low; most of the people who went to work in the mines in South Africa were illiterate, ”he said. This further complicates claims as many have no records or documents regarding their employment.

Former miners from Chisomo told the Africa Calling podcast that more than 50,000 former miners had not been compensated.

Africa Calling contacted government officials, who declined to be interviewed, but Malawi Labor Secretary Dickson Chunga released a statement.

The Ministry of Labor referred to the 1970 Mines Unclaimed Profit Preservation Provident Fund, which verified the existence of 475 former Malawian miners. He said they are currently awaiting supporting documents.

The press release indicates that 143 former minors have been found, of which 81 have provided full supporting documents. Their cases have since been submitted to the Provident Fund authorities in South Africa and these minors are waiting to be paid.

The number of workers who have not been compensated remains vast – some 50,000 former miners are without pay, the Chisomo group told the Africa Calling podcast.

The Ministry of Labor said earlier this year that the government of Malawi had approached the South African government for the first time to intervene on the issue, in order to speed up the process and said it was in constant contact with administrators of the Provident Fund.

The fight will continue

The Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (HRDC) of Malawi recently joined the protest by former miners, to help them in their campaign for back pay

Hendreson Mhango, HRDC vice-president in the southern region, said they were monitoring this issue.

“We have been following this issue since last year and we have done research in the southern region and the eastern region. We thought it was wise to help them hand in their petition as they face human rights violations. “Mhango said.

The Ministry of Labor stressed that restrictions on Covid-19 in South Africa have significantly slowed the processing of claims due to restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic. He rejected reports that the government of Malawi had received money intended for former miners.