City Press reports that the families of three miners, who were buried underground when a Mpumalanga mine collapsed in 2016, laid culpable homicide charges against Vantage Goldfields SA (VGSA) directors last week.  

The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) was expected to have done so after concluding its inquiry into the disaster at Lily Mine in March 2018, but did not.  The DMR handed a report to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in August 2018, which apparently recommended prosecution.  But the NPA could do nothing about it because there was no police docket.  According to Mpumalanga NPA spokesperson Monica Nyuswa, the NPA could only proceed if a charge had been laid and there had been a police investigation.  The entrance to Lily Mine near Barberton collapsed in February 2016.  Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda were buried when a container converted into a lamp office in which they had been working plunged underground.  They have not subsequently been found.  Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Mtsholi Bhembe confirmed that the families had laid culpable homicide charges against the mine’s directors and that the docket would be sent to the NPA for a decision on whether to prosecute or not.  DMR spokesperson Ayanda Shezi avoided providing clarity on why the department had been reluctant to lay charges after completing the inquiry.  Lily Mine, and its sister Barbrook mine, were shut down in 2016 and placed under business rescue.

• Read the full original of Sizwe Sama Yende’s report on this story at City Press
• Read too, Lily Mine sale of shares agreement canned for now, at Business Report

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