Last Thursday, February 5, marked the 10-year anniversary of the death of three employees at Lily Mine in Barberton.

Yvonne Mnisi, Solomon Nyirenda, and Pretty Nkambule were inside a lamp room when the crown pillar, which was between levels three and four of the mine, collapsed on February 5, 2016.

The crown caved into the old underground workings of the mine and the lamp room was buried under rubble.

Seventy-six employees, who were also trapped underground following the incident, were rescued through a narrow ventilation shaft.

Efforts to rescue Mnisi, Nyirenda and Nkambule proved fruitless and had to be called off due to the danger posed by the unstable terrain. To date, their remains have not been recovered.

Along with the families of the three victims, ActionSA leaders Herman Mashaba, Dr Mbahare Kekana, Athol Trollip, Lerato Ngobeni, and Thoko Mashiane went to the offices of the South African Human Rights Commission in Mbombela last Wednesday.

Their intent was to lodge a complaint against the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE).

“As things stand, the NPA is in contempt of court, because it has failed to do what it was ordered to do,” said Mashaba. “When the families tried to open cases against the DMRE at the Barberton police station, they were turned away.”

Athol Trollip, Herman Mashaba, Dr Mbahare Kekana, and Thoko Mashiane at the SAHRC in Mbombela.According to Trollip and Ngobeni, the party is alarmed that assistance was provided outside South Africa, while citizens are ignored.

“We shall strive for the retrieval of our people from underground. The country was able to retrieve other victims in a similar situation in a foreign country. This government is even good in the retrieval of the zama zamas trapped inside mines, despite that they are illegal, leaving these three victims who are South Africans,” said Ngobeni.

SAHRC Mpumalanga provincial manager, Eric Mokonyama, confirmed that the families lodged the complaints.

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The spokesperson for the victims’ families, Harry Mazibuko, said, “We have indeed lodged the complaints at the offices of the SAHRC on Wednesday, February 4. We lodged the complaints against the NPA, SAPS and the DMRE.

The Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court inquest outcome concluded that the NPA, SAPS and the department be held responsible, but to date there has been no prosecution and we are not told anything.”

*This article has been amended since it was first published. Mpumalanga News previously named Lethu Thomo as the spokesperson for SAHRC in Mpumalanga, but has since been reliably informed that Thomo is actually the Head of Research and Communications for ActionSA in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature. Mpumalanga News apologises for any confusion that might have been caused by this error.