MBABANE – Maloma Colliery Limited has been forced to reduce its production and retrench 145 more employees after its biggest customer scaled down operations.
Maloma Colliery Limited’s clients are smelters who need anthracite coal for two main purposes: Providing heat and acting as a reducing agent. The anthracite coal is burnt to generate the high temperatures needed to melt the ore and provides the carbon monoxide that strips oxygen from the iron ore, leaving usable iron.
As 14 smelters in South Africa shut down their plants last month, the country’s leader in anthracite coal mining was forced to remodel its business and reduce its workforce by 215 employees, also cancelling one shift.
This brings the total number of employees who have lost their source of income to 360. This comes at a time when the country’s unemployment rate stands at 35.7 per cent, with youth making up 58.1 per cent of that figure.
Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that ArcelorMittal SA and Goodyear shut down their operations. The Chief Executive Officer of Glencore Ferroalloys, Japie Fullard, informed employees of his entity that they would retrench at the Boshoek and Wonderkop Smelters, Rhovan Operations, as well as the Carbon Division.
In a communiqué, he said: “As part of this process, we are also contemplating reducing the Lion Smelter to a two-furnace operation and will proceed with further streamlining and restructuring the support functions within the Mining Division, at Rustenburg and Lydenburg Smelters, Head Office and Shared Services functions. Rhovan will continue operating with a new product mix and potentially a different structure.”
Fullard said the retrenchments will involve consultations with affected employees and relevant representatives. The aim is to explore all possible options to mitigate the impact on their workforce, including considering alternatives. The closure of these mines has been reported by the South African Broadcasting Service Corporation (SABC) as approximating job losses of over 3 500, affecting thousands of families.
This shutdown is in addition to the exodus of numerous international companies that have downsized their local operations in South Africa, which has led to the mining sector in Eswatini making a clarion call to government. This migration has been attributed to a volatile macro environment, a weak Rand, a feeble economy and a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of less than one per cent.
The departure of these international firms affects Eswatini. The country’s exports to South Africa were E2.09 billion, while imports from South Africa were E2.46 billion, depicting a heavy reliance on the neighbouring country for trade.
Given these developments, Maloma Colliery Limited’s Chief Executive Officer, Jabulile Shabangu, said her entity was feeling the impact and had been forced to reduce its production line by shutting down a shaft. Shabangu said the shutdown of the shaft is in addition to the cancellation of a shift, which resulted in the company downsizing its human resources by 215 employees.
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