CNRG wants Hwange to build houses for Kamandama widows
The Center for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG) last week called for Hwange Colliery Company to build decent houses for 63 surviving widows of the 427 colliery employees who lost their lives in Zimbabwe’s worst mine disaster.
Rudairo Mapuranga
The CNRG last week conducted the Kamandama commemoration in honour of the widows who lost their spouses during the disaster.
According to CNRG Executive Director Mr Farai Maguwu, the widows are living in misery therefore the Hwange Colliery Company should make sure that the living conditions of the women who lost their spouses through the disaster is looked into.
“The widows are living in misery. We call on Hwange Colliery Company to build decent houses for these widows. Their living conditions is an indictment of both Hwange Colliery Company Limited and the GoZ. How we treat widows and orphans speaks volumes about the state of our conscience,” Maguwu said.
During the commemorations, the widows who lost their husbands in the Kamandama disaster could not hide their emotions saying that the incident is always fresh to them.
In the history of mining in Zimbabwe, the Kamandama disaster remains the deadliest. On June 6, 1972, four hundred and twenty-seven mine workers perished at the then Wankie Colliery’s Number 2 shaft when a string of underground gas explosions ripped through the mine.
The accident was so bad that most miners’ bodies were not retrieved and the shaft sealed off.
Miners drawn from South Africa, Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Costa Rica, among other countries, also died in the disaster.