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Two Lusikisiki men died while digging sand in an illegal sand mine. Sinethemna Dlamini 34 and Nickodim Sirhorho 32 were buried under a pile of sand that fell on them while they were digging out sand in an illegal sand mine at kwaRhole village under ward 24 in Lusikisiki.
The two men had to be dug out by other sand miners using spades and shovels. “We had just loaded our sand truck and were leaving the sand mine in a truck. The truck had just gone uphill and when I looked at where the two were working I did not see them. I asked the others and asked the truck to stop, we saw that their tunnel had fallen. We rushed back and started digging them out using our spades and shovels. Their hole was too deep we found them very deep under, there is no way they would have survived that.” Said sand miner, Philiso Maqondo.
According to residents of kwaRhole many people have died and some have been badly injured while working at that sand mine. A sand miner who asked his identity to be kept anonymous describes the situation at kwaRhole as one of the main causes of death among the young people in their village. “We are bearing our friends every now and then because they die at the sand mine, just in the last weeks of December we were bearing a young man who was also buried under a pile of sand. Not long after that in the early weeks of January we are now bearing two more men who died the same way” said the sand miner.
In the early hours of 22 December 2022, the men went to work at the sand mine a place known by residents of kwaRhole as Esantini. The uncle of the deceased Thabile Dlamini explains that the day before 22 December was a little rainy so the sand was moist and unstable. “My nephew and his friend went to esantini very early in the morning of 22 December. Most sand delivery trucks get there very early so the sand miners want to rush to have their loads of sand ready for when the trucks get there. When you dig there you create some kind of a tunnel going deep underground where the best sand is. They clearly dug too deep and did not think about the loose moist sand they were leaving on top of them. It fell on them and that’s how they died, buried under the moist and heavy sand.” Said Sibusiso Ngwayi.
The residents of kwaRhole and the families of the deceased are grief stricken and are worried that the recent deaths of the two men won’t be the last if the government does nothing to create employment or make that sand mine a safe work environment for kwaRhole residents. “We want our government to give us permits or licenses to work at that sand mine legally, and also ensure that the place is safe by providing proper working equipment and safety trainings for us. This is our way of feeding our families and dealing with poverty. Unlike most young men in Lusikisiki we are not stealing from anyone or killing people but we just using our strength to feed our families. We do not understand how that is illegal, we are not working on anybody’s yard or destroying any property. The land we are working on is in our village we therefore feel like we are entitled to work here.” Said Nyanisille Mzayifani.
Mrs. Dlamini the mother of the late Thabiso Dlamini says her heart is broken by the death of her son “I was hoping I will be the one who gets to be buried by my son and not be the one who buries him. I am this poor unemployed widowed women and my son was assisting me financially with the little he got from working at the sand mine. Now that he is no more, I have no idea how I’m going to survive. The government must do something, our children are unemployed and so they end up risking their lives by working in unsafe and dangerous places” Said the grieving mother.
The Ingquza hill local municipality did not respond to questions asked by Pondoland Times concerning the sand mine at kwaRhole village.
