By Tracy Mutowekuziva
The tragic Kamandama mine disaster which occurred on the 6th of June 1972, in the mining town of Hwange after a methane gas explosion caused the mine to collapse trapping and killing 427 miners remains the worst mining disaster in the history of Zimbabwe and the second in Africa only to the Clydesdale Colliery disaster where 435 miners were suffocated by methane gas and crushed to death by rockfall following mine collapse on 21 January 1960. The Wankie disaster profoundly impacted the families of the victims and the community.
The disaster robbed the only beacon of hope for the wives of the deceased mineworkers who today are still facing several challenges. During the time of the disaster, women did not have access to education and jobs and due to an entrenched patriarchal system could not even inherit property and land. The laws around pensions were also oppressive around the time. For the surviving spouses to continue receiving their deceased spouses’ pensions, they had to remain widowed and not remarry.
The disaster left young women with an increased burden of raising families alone. Prior to the disaster, the women had already been tendering unpaid work by taking care of their spouses and reproducing and raising the next generation of the mine labour force. To this day, the unpaid care work of women in mining communities remains unrecognized.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the victims’ widows were evicted from colliery houses to pave the way for new workers and their families. As a result, many of them trekked back to areas like Jambezi, Makwa and Milonga communal lands which they had left when their husbands were engaged in the mine.
Over the past five years, CNRG has been holding commemorations to push Hwange Colliery to provide for the needs of the remaining widows. Hwange Colliery Company has over the years been absorbing the dependents of the victims by giving them jobs while the widows have occasionally received groceries or cash pay-outs. The company has over the years come under fire for lying to the government on the welfare of widows and parading them before invited guests under the guise of honouring their departed husbands. In 2019, the widows reportedly received USD20 pay-outs which were converted into local currency.
Some of the key challenges that widows of former mine workers faced in Zimbabwe include:
- Food – Hwange is a dry area, made worse by climate change. The widows struggle to put food on the table. They have no source of income or capacity to start self-help projects.
- Housing – They live in squalid conditions. Some of the widows rent out a room from Colliery properties.
- Healthcare – The widows are now advanced in age and require periodic medical checkups and treatment.
CNRG Advocacy Bearing Fruit for the Widows
The widows did not get fair compensation from the Company when their spouses died. They wallowed in poverty and were only remembered during the June 6th commemorations where they received food hampers. To push for their welfare collectively, the widows formed the Kamandama Widows Association which has worked with several organisations including CNRG in bringing their issues to light. Since 2017 CNRG has held a separate Kamandama commemoration where the welfare of the widows takes centre stage. In 2022 Hwange Colliery started paying the widow’s allowances. The widows told the 2023 commemoration they are got payments of $200, $400, and $500 instalments within a space of 12 months. Whilst this is a welcome and progressive move, there is a need to formalise and regularise the payouts because all the widows are elderly and require medical insurance among other amnesties.