Ephraim Mello worked on a mine for more than two decades and now his son, nephews and niece have taken over the baton, writes Lucas Ledwaba.
Ephraim Mello walks into the living room smiling broadly. He is holding four certificates that he earned during his 23 years working at the biggest open-pit platinum mine in the world – Mogalakwena Platinum Mine in Limpopo.
Mello (63) qualified as an operator of some of the mine’s big roaring machines: the front-end loader, excavator, surface loader and surface truck. Mogalakwena Platinum Mine – Anglo American Platinum’s flagship operation in the portfolio – is situated in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo’s Waterberg district. Mello started working at the mine shortly after it was established in 1993. In 2015, at the age of 61, he retired to his home village of Motlhotlo, near the mine. But that didn’t spell the end of his family’s ties with the mining giant he used to work for. He lives in a spacious brick house built for him by Anglo American Platinum in Rooibokpan, a new township development about 7km from Motlhotlo. The house formed part of a relocation deal entered into by the mining company and the residents of Motlhotlo.
Mello stands in front of the house that was built for him by Anglo American Platinum in Rooibokpan near Mokopane, where Mello and his family of seven used to live in a tiny shack.
Ephraim Mello poses with his son David (far left) and nephew Phološo Makgetha, who represent the next generation of the family that is working for Anglo American Platinum.
Mello displays the certificates he earned during his 23 years of service at the Mogalakwena Platinum Mine, the world’s largest producer of the valuable metal
It doesn’t end there. His son, David, is now employed at the mine as a plant operator. His nephews, Phološo and Bethuel, and niece Mamoraka have also followed in Mello’s footsteps. Phološo and Bethuel work as truck operators, while Mamoraka is a plant operator. They are all the breadwinners for their respective families.
Mello worked at the gold mines in Johannesburg from the mid-1970s, but, in 1991, he was retrenched and returned home to Limpopo. A difficult period followed, during which he could not provide for his family. Mello’s wife Raesibe remembers those days with sadness. At the time, the family lived in a ramshackle zinc shack and struggled to make ends meet – Mello had been the only breadwinner as Raesibe raised their five children and tended to the family’s vegetable fields. Raesibe says: “Life was hard before he got this job. He had looked for work for a long time. We depended on my mother sending us money, but that was not enough to raise our children.”
Then, in the middle of 1993, Mello’s experience on the gold mines helped him land a job at Mogalakwena mine. The Mellos’ lives took a turn for the better. “With the money I earned at Anglo American Platinum, I managed to send my children to school. I managed to feed and clothe them,” says Mello.
Anglo American Platinum has paid part of the tuition fees for the Mellos’ 23-year-old daughter Mmabatho to go to a further education and training college, where she is studying business management. He looks back on his time creating what has become the biggest open-pit platinum mine in the world with pride. “We worked very well with no problems. I was not the kind of person to stay away from work for no reason. I was dedicated. That is why I trained to operate different types of machines and earned these certificates,” he says, smiling proudly and pointing to the documents laid out on the coffee table that are imprinted with an Anglo American logo.
He remembers a time when the landscape did not yet feature the landmarks of mining. “You see those hills over there?” he points westwards, where the mine dumps tower over the land and cast long shadows in the late winter afternoon. “They [mine dumps] were not there when I started working for Anglo American Platinum. I used to dump [the gravel] there. I was the best truck operator because I worked very fast. My colleagues could not understand how I managed to do so many loads in one day,” he says with a smile of satisfaction. Those days are behind him now and only memories of roaring machines remain. The new generation of Phološo (30) and David (32) are creating their own memories.
Phološo started working at Mogalakwena in 2007 after he was spotted the previous year during Anglo American Platinum’s talent identification initiative, which targeted school children with an interest in the world of science and technology. The company put him in a learnership programme, where he studied electrical engineering and, later, water treatment and plant production management. He was eventually employed as a truck operator. Life before he was employed by Anglo American Platinum was a never-ending struggle. “We struggled financially at home,” says Phološo, who also lived in Motlhotlo. “When I went to high school, I had no shoes.
In winter, I would freeze because I had no warm clothing. Food was scarce and I can say that life was really hard,” he says.
Now he can provide for his child and has even bought a car. He has also relocated to Rooibokpan and says life is good. “Mining has helped us put food on the table. Life is much better than it was for us before we started working on the mine,” says Phološo. While the older generation is still nostalgic about life in Motlhotlo, where many supplemented their livelihoods through subsistence farming, Phološo’s generation is more than happy with the current address. “Life is better here. In Motlhotlo, I had to go up the hills pushing a wheelbarrow just to get water. If I didn’t do that, I would have no water to wash or to drink,” says Phološo. Raesibe, who earned a stipend from Anglo American Platinum while serving on the relocation committee that facilitated talks for the relocation from Motlhotlo village to Rooibokpan, also feels like life has become much easier in the new settlement. “We love it here. It’s almost like being in a town. We have floodlights and a tarred road, and the water is right here in our yards. Where we come from, there were no roads to talk about. Cars could not move on those roads when it rained,” she says.
Part of Mello still misses the old way of life in the village. But he shares his wife’s views that there have been many positive developments since their relocation. In Motlhotlo, they say, the schools that were built by the community decades ago are now in ruins. The only clinic there was dilapidated and, even though they had electricity in their homes, getting the basics such as water was a struggle.
In Rooibokpan, they say, the company has built modern, better equipped schools and paved roads, and there is a well-resourced clinic. Even churches that were flattened during the relocation have been rebuilt. The Mello home is located on a large property that stands next to two massive and shiny water tanks that supply water to the area.
Mello’s relationship with Anglo American Platinum continues on another front – he is one of several contractors who have been given the business of supplying water to residents of rural villages around the Mogalakwena mine. But he doesn’t want things to end here – he has submitted further proposals to the company through his company to provide other services that will help grow his business and help develop the community. “The company has really helped me. I’m always filled with fear when I think of what would have become of my family if I didn’t get a job there,” says Mello. “When I looked at the families of the people who were not working, I knew that my life was better. It was hard to see other people suffering. Now I’m happy that some of my family members have also been lucky enough to have been employed there,” says Mello.