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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
A HWANGE Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) opencast mine excavator operator — Simbarashe Matindike — should be thanking his ancestors after surviving a freak accident that left him buried under a 15 metre high mass of coal rubble for five hours. HCCL corporate affairs advisor Burzil Dube yesterday confirmed the accident which happened on Sunday around 5AM.
He said the excavator operator was loading loose material into dump trucks at the deep end of the JKL open cast mine.
“Yes I confirm that there was a mishap involving our excavator operator who was buried alive by loose materials from a high wall. He was buried alive for five hours in a huge mass of loose material which was about 15 metres high in the excavator he was operating.”
Dube said the operator was rescued around 10AM alive and without a scratch on his body.
“We used excavators to remove the loose material until we reached him,” he said.
Sources speaking on condition of anonymity said the accident was just a tip of the iceberg of the intensity of the problems bedevilling the coal mining giant.
“The company is running out of coal. It is running out of coal reserves as evidenced by the fact that this excavator had gone to the deep end clearing loose material so that they can get to more coal,” said the source.
Another source said the excavator which Matindike of Number 5, T Section, was operating, was slightly dented.
“The guy is very lucky as he could have been crushed in the excavator or could have suffocated. He had a torch which he lit and the rescuers saw it leading to his rescue. However, it was a very huge rescue operation because by 9AM there was no sign of him or the excavator. So we were a bit worried that he might suffocate but miraculously, we reached him before he ran out of air,” said a source, an HCCL employee who attended the scene.
After being rescued, Matindike was taken to HCCL hospital for observation and was discharged.
Matabeleland North police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Eglon Nkala confirmed receiving a report involving a man who had been trapped in an excavator by rubble.
“We just received a report involving a HCCL employee who had been buried alive while in an excavator. We did not attend the scene,” he said.
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