Whoa there, Warbler. Talk about rushing to an instant and sanctimonious judgment! Not even Kathy knows what the mine is, who owns or owned it, whether it's still functioning and even, it seems, what it's mining. Of course there are Health & Safety rules in place in South Africa's mines, there were even during the apartheid years, because white miners went down the shafts the same as Africans. There were and are deaths, of course, of white and black South Africans - nobody in the world is 'safe' in mining, no matter how many regulations you put in place.
But don't have a pop at just South Africa: if you want to rail against mining fatalities, you could just as easily have a go at Canada, the USA, China, Russia, and the various Stans, and then have another go at oil production, logging and rubber extraction, trawling, quarrying, trains - all activities which incur disasters from time to time, whether through accident, negligence, or natural forces.
You've just spent a great deal of time saying how you feel you've been terribly insulted, and have just returned the bile to Kathy.
