Mashaba to assist Lily Mine families in retrieving bodies
Founder of the People's Dialogue and former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba says he will assist Lily Mine families in forcing government to retrieve their loved ones' bodies.
On Wednesday Mashaba held a press briefing in Rosebank with family members to announce that he enlisted attorneys to help retrieve the remains of the three miners.
Senior lawyers from Mkhabela Huntley Attorneys will handle the issue.
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.
Mashaba says he will personally fund the legal action.
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"I said to myself, without even talking to my wife because she's the one I report to financially, to say we've got to do something here.
"What's the use of money if money cannot change our lives? Money is not about buying expensive cars, money is not about having the best holidays on earth. Money is about actually changing the lives of your country and your people.”
Mashaba says the attorneys will also demand compensation for the family and former workers.
"As much as we'd really like to get this container retrieved as a matter of urgency I think it is normal practice when you've had people endure such pain, I guess no one can doubt that they deserve compensation.
"It would not be unfair for our legal team to demand - not ask - demand compensation".
Sifiso Mavuso - brother to Pretty Nkambule - says their families have not been helped because they are poor.
"Our leaders are selling us out because they more interested in money. When our government has to help people our government starts playing mind games.
"If our government is failing to help us they must tell us so that we can ask intervention from the international community. Our government has been able to help victims of cyclones in Mozambique. Why can’t they help us here? The English saying says charity begins at home.”