Diabetic Aurora man taken to hospital

Thatoyaone Motlogelwa's wife thought he was dying when he started shivering and struggling to breathe, with foam coming out of his mouth.

Motlogelwa, a struggling former miner from the Aurora gold mine in Orkney, was admitted to hospital early on Monday morning after suffering a diabetic attack.

The liquidated Pamodzi mines in Orkney and Springs were shut down in 2009 after Aurora Empowerment systems failed to secure funding for them.

Aurora is owned by President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, and former president Nelson Mandela's grandson, Zondwa Mandela. Motlogelwa and other former miners continue to live in poverty in and around the Orkney mine shafts in Klerksdorp in North West and Grootvlei mine in Springs, east of Johannesburg.

Speaking from Tshepong Hospital in Klerksdorp yesterday, Motlogelwa said he does not know how he landed up in a hospital bed, saying he only remembers being in bed at his shack in the Kanana informal settlement.

"I woke up and I was still feeling a bit dizzy and I asked the nurse where I was and why I had an oxygen mask on," he said.

As Motlogelwa was being rushed to hospital on Monday, Solly Phetoe, Cosatu's North West secretary, told former miners at a meeting that the insolvency case against Aurora had been postponed to next month.

Aurora has been accused of running down the liquidated Pamodzi mines in Orkney and Springs.

Phetoe also said that, since 2009, about five miners are reported to have committed suicide while many others have died due to illness.

Motlogelwa said the stress brought about by the lack of an income for years has led to his developing high blood pressure.

"We are not eating right because of our financial difficulties. It is not easy being a diabetic under these conditions."

His wife, Selina Mofokeng, said she was convinced he was dying when foam came out of his mouth. "His vomited his breakfast and medication firstly, and went back to bed. When I went back to check up on him, he was shivering and struggling to breathe."

She said after Motlogelwa vomited a sugar water mixture she had prepared for him, she gave him a sweet and after swallowing the sweet he became stable until the ambulance arrived.

Lefty Juda, a member of the National Union of Mineworkers at the Pamodzi mine shaft in Orkney said the abandoned mine workers were struggling to find temporary work because they lived 10km from Klerksdorp.

The Gift of the Givers were yesterday expected to go to the Orkney m ine to donate food parcels at the shaft.