No light at the end of the tunnel for trapped Lily Mine workers
On Wednesday morning, a commemoration was held for the miners whose bodies remain underground.
BARBERTON – Wednesday marked four years since the Lily Mine disaster, that occurred on February 5, 2016. Investigations into the tragedy concluded that a crown pillar collapsed and caused the sinkhole that trapped 75 miners underground.
A container on the surface, in which Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyirenda and Yvonne Mnisi were working, plummeted into the sinkhole. The container has not been found and the three miners’ bodies remain unrecovered.
On Wednesday morning, a commemoration was held for the miners whose bodies remain underground. The event was attended by mining union Amcu, Vantage Goldfields’ CEO Mike McChesney, Siyakhula Sonke Empowerment Flaming Silver’s Fred Arendse and former Lily Mine workers.
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In his address, Amcu president, Joseph Mathunjwa, called on government and the Department of Mineral Resources to start looking for ways in which the mine could be reopened and if funding could be allocated to continue efforts to retrieve the fallen miners’ bodies.
“If it were your children, Mr President, means would have been made to retrieve the bodies. Their families need closure,” he said.
He launched a scathing attack and said the miners had been abandoned by government.
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“Government has been hijacked by capitalists. There are dark days ahead in this country, because soon there will be job losses everywhere. There are no fat cats in the unions, Lily Mine must open.”
The assembled guests, comprised mostly of Amcu members, cheered at this as Mathunjwa continued.
“There is bankruptcy in the leadership. There is a vacuum. Let’s start asking the difficult questions. When Madiba left, what have you done since then?”
The proceedings were almost marred by a group outside the mine, who demanded to speak to McChesney, who had left earlier. Mathunjwa called for order and the police presence ensured that calm prevailed.
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The solemn procession left the mine after the proceedings concluded with no solution in sight for the almost 1 000 unemployed miners, their families and the contingent camped outside Lily Mine.
The court battle over ownership of the mine is a looming spectre amid calls by Mathunjwa that the minerals in South Africa should be returned to the people.
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“Africa was conquered by the Europeans and now by the Asians. Zuma was about the Guptas and Cyril is about England. It is time we took matters into our own hands,” he said.
