Lily Mine families lash ‘uninterested’ government
Family members of the three mineworkers who are still trapped at Lily Mine has accused government of failing to help them retrieve the remains of their loved ones.
The bodies of the three miners, Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyarenda and Yvonne Mnisi have not been brought to the surface nearly four years after the entrance of the mine, outside Baberton in Mpumalanga, collapsed.
Shortly after the incident the company which held the mining rights went into business rescue, leaving the family without answers.
On Wednesday the founder of the People's Dialogue and former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba and the family briefed the media in Johannesburg.
Mashaba said the families are willing to take legal action to ensure that the bodies of the miners are retrieved for proper burial.
An emotional Sifiso Mazibuko - Pretty Nkambule’s little brother - said the matter would have been resolved had the miners trapped underground been white.
"I don't know why can such thing happen in a democratic country whereby black people got trapped underground for almost four years but there is no government intervention.
"That is why I ask myself this question: ‘If those people who trapped underground, one of them was a white person, was it going to take so long for our government to intervene? If one of them was the son or daughter of our president Mr Cyril Ramaphosa or deputy President Mr DD (David) Mabuza or the Minster of Resources Mr Gwede Mantashe was going to take so long for government to intervene?’
"Do we have to suffer because we're the poorest of the poor?"
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An inconsolable family, accompanied by the South African Human Rights Commission, forced their way into the resort for a site inspection on Tuesday, claiming to have been denied access by the resort. Eloff says the owners of the resort hope to meet with the family on Friday to offer them their account of events.
Harry Mazibuko - who was the health and safety officer at the time - says when the container fell 75 people were rescued but three miners went down with the container and have remained there.
"Our lives have changed to worse so we have been abandoned by even our very own government. Since the collapse, there is no form of assistance we did receive from our very own government.
"They were lying to us that's why we are saying because we can refer to the promises they made. The reason we are saying they are lying is because those promises did not materialise until to date.”
Mazibuko says family and friends have been protesting inside the mine, seeking justice for their loved ones.
"That is why we decided on the 30th of April 2019 to go and camp inside the mine we targeted the following day which was 1st of May – Workers’ Day - we haven't got a reason to celebrate workers day while or three colleagues are still in that mine.
"Today marked 272 days since they started camping in the mine. They have been vacated from the mine by rescue practitioners. They no longer call us ex-workers but unlawful protestors."