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‘This area is a crime scene’: Mashaba pledges to retrieve the bodies of Lily Mine victims

ActionSA has spent R1.3m in legal costs to challenge government and owners of the mine and assist families

Herman Mashaba speaks to former employees of Lily Mine and family members of the three trapped miners in Louisville, outside Barberton. Mashaba says ActionSA party will continue advocating for the families of the Lily Mine victims. File photo.
Herman Mashaba speaks to former employees of Lily Mine and family members of the three trapped miners in Louisville, outside Barberton. Mashaba says ActionSA party will continue advocating for the families of the Lily Mine victims. File photo.
Image: Supplied

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has reiterated the party’s commitment to advocate for the families of three Vantage Goldfields Lily Mine employees who were trapped when a central pillar collapsed into a sinkhole on February 5 2016. 

Nearly six years later, the agony persists as the bodies of Yvonne Mnisi, Solomon Nyirenda and Pretty Nkambule remain underground. The three died when the container in which they were working collapsed and sank into the ground. 

Mashaba said as long as ActionSA is around, the party will do everything in its power to ensure the container is retrieved.

He said the party has so far spent R1.3m in legal costs in efforts to challenge government and the owners of the mine and assist the families. 

“On February 5 it will be six years since the container collapsed and you and I, we carry on with our lives. Here we have three innocent black families who have their loved ones in a container only 70m down.

“Whether I’m alive or not, that container is going to be retrieved,” said Mashaba. 

On Tuesday Mashaba attended a night vigil with the families and community outside the mine.

He said the retrieval of the bodies will allow families to find closure.

Mashaba said a member of one affected family quit university because he couldn't cope with the grief and trauma. 

“The families are asking for closure,” he said.

Taking to social media, he labelled the mine a “crime scene”.

Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, on Tuesday appealed for government intervention.

“The government is the custodian of minerals and issues licences to the mines. We believe the government has the upper hand in terms of the regulations and directives. We are therefore correct to say the government is responsible,”  Mathunjwa told 702

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