Mashaba cries foul over attempts to remove former Lily miners
The end of April marks 365 days since former miners at Lily Mine started a protest outside the mine, for the bodies of their colleagues who perished in the 2016 mine collapse to be retrieved.
The miners, Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyarenda and Yvonne Mnisi, have been entombed for four years now.
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The leader of the group, Harry Mazibuko, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Lows Creek police after attempts to forcibly remove them last week Tuesday.
“We believe that our rights have been violated by the ones tasked with upholding them. For us this means that we effectively have no rights, but we cannot leave our colleagues at the mine,” he said.
Mazibuko claimed that prior to the national lockdown, the group sought information from a local clinic to ensure that the protesters were compliant with the social distancing measures. These, he said, were adhered to by the former miners.
Former City of Johannesburg mayor and The People’s Dialogue founder, Herman Mashaba, labelled the police action as harassment. In a statement, Mashaba said,”The former miners have been subject to harassment, intimidation and law enforcement efforts to prevent them from being there.
“A court order was enforced by over 60 armed police in 2018, to force them to remain 1 000 metres from the mine, which they have fully complied with.”
He continued to denounce the attempted eviction and added,”These latest efforts represent a continuation of what appears to be a comprehensive and concerted effort to frustrate the efforts of former miners and family members-which I fundamentally beleived to be linked to corrupt interests”.
Mashaba said that the latest attempt by SAPS to remove the protesting former miners was illegal, citing that they have lived on the land for almost a year and built temporary structures. He added that evictions during a national state of disaster were prohibited.
“The provisions of the Disaster Management Act do not supersede the provisions of Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act,” Mashaba said.
He continued,”I have ensured that the legal team representing the miners are in contact with the SAPS.
“It is unlikely that the SAPS are embarking upon similar actions on occupied land anywhere else in the province, which again points to the Covid-19 crisis being used to continue the harassment of the former miners and their families.”
According to Mazibuko, Mashaba, in collaboration with SPAR, made a sizable donation of foodstuff to the protesters to ensure that they have a ready food supply during the national lockdown.
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