THE PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE CLOSING OF A MINE FOR WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

This article arose from a project which was launched on behalf of the Labour Union Solidarityafter the interim liquidation and immediate closing of the Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) GoldMine at Stilfontein. This mining community was also traumatized by an earthquake shortlybefore the closing of the mine. The process commenced on 27 April 2005, when a contract wasdrawn up with Solidarity’s Helping Hand Fund to do a psychosocial situation analysis amongthe community. Based on the results of the psychosocial situation analysis, a project plan wassubmitted to Solidarity, after which a formal agreement was reached between the two parties anda meeting with the representatives of the labour union was held. Following this, the plan ofaction was proposed, the facilitators trained and the programme implemented. The data of thepsychosocial situation analysis, the contents and course of the group sessions as well as theresults that ensued from the questionnaire that was filled in by the women during the women’sday as well as certain strengths present in the community are discussed. This is followed by anintegrated discussion of the investigation. A number of recommendations are also made for thefuture.

Abstract licence: CC BY

27 more references, whose wording the paper’s licence keeps private.

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.