REFILWE MEKOA
Allanridge residents are unhappy that nearby Harmony Target Gold Mine allegedly hires people from outside.
Last week Nyakallong residents outside Allanridge protested and looted foreign owned shops. The notice to march to the mine was dismissed by the municipality. Matjhabeng Local Municipality spokesperson Kgojane Matutle says they received an application letter from the Allanridge Development Group regarding the march. He says the march couldn’t take place because they were approached by different people when they went to meet the group.
“We then advised the other group to have a separate application because we could not grant them the opportunity to march because they are not from the group we received the letter from. We also advised them to engage with the stakeholders Harmony and the police who were also there at the meeting but they refused to discuss their meeting with them. We left with the knowledge and agreement that they will give us a new application to march,” he says.
Matutle says they didn’t refuse the application of the group and they were surprised to hear that they went on the rampage the next day. Marian van der Walt from Harmony Target Gold Mine says their employment policy stipulates that they only deal with recognised community structures.
She says from January 2012, 65% of vacancies for Target 1 and Target plant were filled by local communities from Allanridge, Nyakallong, Odendaalsrus and Welkom. “We continue to have discussions with recognised community structures on ensuring that we employ people from the surrounding community," says van der Walt.
