The Citizen reports that families of the deceased miners whose bodies are still trapped underground at Lily Mine have braved severe harassment in the last 650 days of camping outside the shaft as they hopelessly wait for their relatives to be retrieved.  

On 5 February 2016, Lily Mine in Mpumalanga reported that about 90 of its workers were trapped below the surface in a sinkhole after a tremor sank a lamp container.  Soon thereafter, 87 of those mineworkers were rescued.  Unfortunately for the families of Elmon Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda, the ordeal had just begun.  Friday marked exactly five years since the disaster and the families held a memorial in the camp that has become their home for almost two years.  They complained that the owner of the mine, Vantage Goldfields, has constantly been harassing them with police, wanting them to move so that operations could resume.  The families are, however, undeterred as they say they are not going home until their loved ones are retrieved.  “This camp has been burned down a number of times, police have come here with big guns and threatened to shoot us if we do not move, at one point there have been death threats,” said Sifiso Mavuso, who is the younger sibling to Pretty Nkambule, whose body remains trapped underground in the mine.  To date, there has been a barrage of promises to retrieve the three bodies and help families find closure.  However families remain in the dark about the developments.

• Read the original of the report in the above regard by Siyanda Ndlovu at The Citizen

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