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It was a tragedy of untold proportions with far reaching mental consequences. No matter how well trained you are, attending to some tragedies is a mammoth task regardless of your skill.
When seven people plunged to their death hundreds of metres into a shaft at Bucks Mine in Colleen Bawn a few miles away from the Matabeleland South Provincial Capital Gwanda, a team of heroes was called upon to help with a rescue mission.
The heroes, 13 of them, were from Vubachikwe Mine; a Duration Gold run mine in Gwanda. Called upon in the dead of the night to walk into what could have been a death trap, one that had already sucked in seven men, the heroes went in fearlessly with a hope of saving fellow miners in distress. But they soon discovered that they had before them a futile pursuit. The rescue mission had now become a retrieval mission. There were obviously no survivors.
Owing to the deplorable state of safety at Bucks Mine, the bodies had plunged into water and were torn apart into shreds and pieces at the bottom of the shaft rendering the retrieval a marathon not a sprint. It eventually lasted for several days. What that meant was they eventually had to collect bits and pieces of flesh which they hoisted in bins one purported body at a time. And because it had been days since the accident, the human flesh had begun to rot and the stench of human flesh was hanging in the air, on their clothes, on their souls.
They ate in the middle of the rot and slept among the corpses during the retrieval. That in itself is an experience that can haunt even the most experienced and dedicated hero of a rescue team as reputable and celebrated as the Vubachikwe 13. Realising the mental impact, Duration Gold therefore decided to bring in a professional counsellor to help with trauma counselling for the team to ease the memory of the ordeal.
Post-Traumatic Stress is real and present danger after such an ordeal and valuing the mental health of their workers, Vubachikwe invested in the mental balance of their rescue team regardless of how much that would impact their pocket.
“Mental balance of the workers after such a service to a fellow mine in need can never be quantified in monetary terms. There is never a high price to pay to ensure the mental health of one’s team of workers and this is an investment we were happy to make for a team whose exploits we were remarkably proud of,” said Vubachikwe Mine Manager None Kananji.
Munashe Chineka, the Safety, Health, Environment and Quality manager for Vubachikwe was pleased with the counselling that the team had received courtesy of their employer.
“Caring for the mental health of your employees especially after such a traumatic ordeal is imperative and it is at the score of what we care for as an organisation. The hard work and commitment by the rescue team has to be matched by our commitment to ensuring that their mental wellbeing is protected and this counselling was appreciated.”
The counselling also saw them visit Bucks Mine for the first time since the recovery exercise with any of them expressing relief that the smell of decaying human flesh had finally gone away, signalling that their minds had in them imprinted the smell of human flesh. Going back to the scene of the trauma helped them view it in a different light and erase certain perceptions of it as a place of death and the smell of death.
“I must say we have been greatly assisted by this counselling. Ordinarily it is something that many may overlook and take for granted but after having gone through it, we can say for sure it was a necessary cog in recovery for which we are grateful,” said team leader Noah Moyo, who led the team of heroes from the front.
After conducting the extensive counselling, counsellor Dumisani Ndlovu was satisfied with the progress; “we have come to the site to help the team find healing so that they confront the scene where things were happening. We believe that by coming here they will find some healing and I believe that we have achieved that,” he said.
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