Samancor the death Trap

Third from the left is the chairperson of Samancor retrenched workers Crisis committee Mr Banda

Samancor is the name of the company which is producing steel it is situated at the Midvaal Meyerton Area at Gauteng Province South Africa.This company Samancor it well known for production of Silicomanganese and farromanganese.this chemical are very dangerous for the people to breath. not only causing danger to the workers but also for the people staying nearer to the company.

In the year of 80's, vast majority of workers of Samancor at Meyerton became ill all of them where diagnosed of Tuberculosis according to the company doctors, Then follow by retrenchment. For many years this has been a regular game to this company, until the workers became aware of this filthy game.In 1990 company doctor declared to one of the workers who want remain anonymous that he is diagnosed of manganism, which is the illness caused by the manganese poisoning, this poisoning exist out of poor healthy and safety measures within the company. the symptoms for this illness are memory loss,Over sleeping ,headaches,Joint sore and spinal cord. Samancor took the sick workers to several doctors who find the same diagnosis, but the company refuses the result as they were not in favour of the company.

According to the information from the Mr Banda who is the Chairperson of the organisation called Samancor retrenched worker crisis committee, which is the organization formed in the year 2000 to represent all the retrenched workers from Samancor he said: ‘Samancor has been changing doctors time and time because their result doesn’t favor them. Even today they are forcing us to be checked by their doctor we are refusing we want our own private doctors to do the testing, Even the inspectors from the department of labour advised us to get our own private doctors to do manganese test. National Union of mine workers union of South Africa(NUMSA). as we were represented by them when we were employed they are arranging doctors who will do the examinations,we are expecting 90 ex- workers to be examined, then the matter will be referred to Compensation commission of South Africa to decide on compensation but currently there is an on going negotiation between us and the Doctors.I also need to put it clear that not only ex-worker but even residents who are living next to the company are also affected by the manganese, few of them will also go for testing'

It is clear that the company has damaged and destroyed lives of many people and workers.it is time for workers , ex-worker and the communities to unite to fight for environmental justice.