8 March, 2012
Today on International Women's Day, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) is calling for the immediate apprehension of the killer or killers of Pinky Mosiane, a 28-year-old South African woman who was employed as a miner at American Platinum’s (Amplats) Khomanani mine in North West province. On 6 February, she was raped or sexually assaulted, and then brutally murdered with a large rock crushing her skull.
The ICEM calls attention that today, 8 March, those responsible for this barbaric crime have not been captured. Underground mining is tough enough for both men and women, and women who work in mines should not have to fear aggression of any sort from other workers, supervisors or anyone else. At the Khomanani mine near Rustenburg, Amplats employs 3,800 workers and 262 of them are women.
Pinky Mosiane
The ICEM has confidence that Anglo American plc., the Amplats parent company, and police in South Africa are doing all that they can to solve Pinky Mosiane’s murder. But we urge the investigations be stepped up and those responsible for this heinous crime against a co-worker be apprehended at once, for a safe and secure workplace at the Khomanani mine.
“Workplace violence against women in any form is a glaring violation of decent work and a severe signal of gender inequality,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. ICEM statistics show that seven of ten women suffer some kind of gender-related violence at some point in their lives. And 50% of women in the European Union suffer on-the-job harassment or bullying.
Pinky Mosiane of Pshing township, South Africa, leaves a seven-year-old son, who also lost his father in 2010, and her mother, Mary. To die this kind of death at the workplace, particularly in a mine, is nearly incomprehensible. But it happened and on this International Women's Day – and the days to come – the ICEM will not rest until the perpetrator(s) of this bestial act are apprehended and shown justice.
For further information, contact ICEM Gender Officer Carol Bruce, [email protected], +41 79 734 9031, or ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, [email protected], +41 22 304 1842.