Welkom - The team of Eskom workers who rescued 955 miners from Sibanye Gold mine, who were trapped for more than 24 hours below ground earlier this week, were led by a dynamic group of women.
The miners, who were rescued on Friday morning, were trapped when a storm caused an electric cable outage on Wednesday night. Some of them were dehydrated and there were a few cases of high blood pressure, but no serious injuries or fatalities.
The two 132 kV lines supplying mines in the Welkom area collapsed due to a severe storm at 23h18 on Wednesday night, leaving mines in the area without electricity supply.
Eskom's senior management commended the sterling job by the multidisciplinary team, which was led by Nozipho Mpanza, the Senior Manager Maintenance & Operations in restoring the power. Mpanza was acting as Free State Operating Unit General Manager on the day.
She was assisted by Recovery Manager Bondozi Mapeka, while the Operating Unit was led by General Manager, Lindi Mthombeni.
Interim Group Chief Executive Phakamani Hadebe said: "I would like to commend the team for working around the clock to ensure that power was restored, especially to the mine where workers' lives were at risk."
"The team's effort demonstrated a shared act of humanity and is in line with our Value of Sinobuntu (We Care) which, alongside other five values, underpins our business operations," Hadebe said.
Group Executive for Distribution, Mongezi Ntsokolo, also commended the employees and all the stakeholders who worked hand-in-hand for demonstrating high levels of professionalism and enthusiasm.
"Though they faced a mammoth task which needed to be executed with an utmost sense of urgency, they still maintained Zero Harm, preventing further harm to the environment and ensuring that no injuries were sustained in the process," Ntsokolo said