Memorial service for the victims of mining disaster

A memorial service for the 177 miners, who died as a result of an underground fire in a tunnel at the Kinross gold mine at Evander, south of Johannesburg is disrupted. Angry Black miners blamed General Mining Union Corporation, owner of the mine, for negligence and poor safety regulations for miners. The dead were mainly Black migrant workers from Malawi , Lesotho , Swaziland and Mozambique . They had succumbed to poisonous fumes released by burning plastic, which spread along sections of the tunnel where men were working some 1 600 metres underground. However everything went ahead and 5 000 miners paid their tribute at a ceremony organised by National Union of Mineworkers . The Union Secretary-General, Cyril Ramaphosa, and Winnie Mandela , the wife of Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the banned African National Congress (ANC) , addressed the memorial service References: Fraser, R. (1990). Keesing's Records of World Events, Longman: London, p. 35622.