Kaziwiziwi accident

By Tawonga Nyirenda

Workers in coal mines need adequate safety

A mine worker has died while on duty at Kaziwiziwi coal mine in Rumphi prompting civil society groups to question the safety standards at the mine.

The deceased, Lucius Msiska, was killed by a 120kg loaded bucket of coal which fell on him on a loading bay of an underground shaft section as a result of a faulty coal cart machine.

“We were told by the Chairperson of Kaziwiziwi Community Action Group (CAG) that the machine that was loading coal from down to top had some problems, and the supervisors told the workers that it would be fixed, but in the mean time they should continue using it,” Project Officer for Church and society, Blessings Kalimanjira told Mining & Trade Review in an interview.

Kalimanjira explained that when the accident happened, the deceased and three other colleagues were inside the mine loading coal in the bucket.

He said after the workers loaded coal in the bucket, the bucket started moving upwards as it usually does. However, a fault developed on the winze rope that holds the bucket and the bucket started descending quickly and hit the deceased in the head and he died on the spot.

Meanwhile, the Department of Mines in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining has suspended the operations at the shaft, until adequate safety measures are put in place.

 “As government, we ordered the suspension of operations at the shaft in order to give room for the review of operations in relation to safety and other factors” said Mining Engineer for the Northern Region George Maneya.

Maneya said the incident is regrettable to his department as it conducts safety audits of mines in form of inspections every three months and the accident occurred on November 15 while the recent mine inspection was conducted on October 22, 2019.

MD for Kaziwiziwi Coal Mine William Phiri told Mining & Trade Review that his Company is carrying out investigations to establish the cause of the accident.

“We are trying to find out why the deceased and the colleagues were still in the mine while the bucket was being let out. The cause of the accident has not been established yet,” said Phiri.

Commenting on the development on Mining & Trade Review Readers WhatsApp group, Coordinator for Malawi Chamber of Mines and Energy Grain Malunga advised the government to carry out a safety audit or ring fencing audit on Kaziwiziwi Mine.

His views were shared by Veteran Geologist James Chatupa who called on the Miner to scale up health and safety measures for employees.

“Kaziwiziwi was the first coal mine in Malawi. It demonstrates that mining can be done by Malawians without waiting for foreigners as Malawians are traditionally miners so let us encourage the miners to continue mining while abiding by safety rules other than calling for closure,” he said.

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