News24 reports that Lesotho's Consul General Selimo Thabane on Monday said there were many issues at play regarding the Orkney tragedy, which saw the bodies of 20 miners discovered near a disused mine shaft last week.

The issues he referred to included unemployment and socio-economic factors. Thabane and North West Premier Job Mokgoro addressed the media before proceeding to assist the families of the dead miners. Mokgoro and Thabane were asked who was to blame for the tragedy, namely the miners who were allegedly mining illegally, the mining companies, or law enforcement. “In today's world, together with its complexities and challenges, as responsible leaders, we should not be too quick to blame. We should rather intensify our efforts to understand the issue at hand," Mokgoro said. Thabane said: “We are going to have meetings, and ... we will definitely peel the onion in these meetings. We will get to the bottom and, eventually, we will have an amicable position. Now, I honestly don't know (who’s to blame).” Mokgoro echoed similar sentiments and said: "I would also align ourselves with peeling the onion. We will never be able to break its back if we do not understand the layers of this onion and where we should really invest heavily - and [make a] serious effort at understanding the onion."

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Canny Maphanga at News24
• Read too, Discovered bodies brings up Orkney's sitting resentment of illegal miners, at EWN

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