First Day at Mufulira Mine

From Great North Road

By: Ian Meyrick

It was my first week at Muf.

I was working for Tech Pro, in charge of the mobile machinery on the lower levels.On my first two days I had gone underground at about 8-00 with the Engineer and out at about 12-00. When it was quiet. But on this, my third day I was late coming out and got to shaft bottom at the same time as everyone else and it was crowded. There were a couple of thousand people all milling around shaft bottom waiting for the cage. I stood near the front waiting for the cage to land.

When it landed and the gates opened from behind me came a great shove of massed bodies impelling you forward, much like as if in a football crowd.

The normal thing to do is to get in the cage turn around and cross your arms over your chest to protect yourself. But with the shoving from behind I wasn’t quick enough to do this and only managed to turn around.

There I was with my arms pinned to my sides and a rugby scrum of hundreds of miners pressing against me.These cages are only designed for about 30 men but I am sure there were about 75 in there with more trying to shove themselves in to get to the surface and into the sunlight.

A Zambian in front of me could see that I was in a bad situation and kept saying, sorry bwana but its the ones in front of me that are pushing back.

With his back shoving into my chest I started to panic. I could feel my ribs being pressed in until. Crack, crack, crack. 3 ribs on my left side broke. I started to scream then. My feet were dangling up in the air inches from the floor. I am only five foot six tall. Sorry bwana, sorry bwana from the man in front.

Them 3 or 4 minutes to reach surface were the longest in my life.

As the cage reached surface and the doors were flung open, the men shot out like the cork from a champagne bottle.

The pressure came off me and I fell to the floor.

There were 3 of us injured that day and off we went to Malcolm Watson for X rays and to bind up my 3 broken ribs.

I was back in work next day though, after a couple of medicinal Mosis at the Bowls club that night.

Contributed by Ian Meyrick

January 09, 2002