News24 reports that an emotional geologist battled back tears on Wednesday as he narrated the tragic incident that left three Lily Mine workers trapped underground.
During an inspection in loco, Michael Begg described the incident to Magistrate Annemarie van der Merwe, who is chairing the inquest into the disaster. Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyirenda and Yvonne Mnisi are presumed dead after a shipping container they were working in collapsed into a sinkhole on 5 February 2016. Begg said the collapse of the container, which was being used as a lamp room, happened within 12 seconds. He battled to hold back the tears as he narrated the 2016 incident. "In terms of the collapses, the idea was to go underground to pull out the material. The more we pulled the material, the ground would continue to fail. The second or third day later, we had a large fall which left us worried. We then made a decision not to carry on (with the rescue). We started monitoring all cracks that were starting to form," Begg indicated. Inside and outside the shaft, security guards armed with machine-guns and pistols are manning the place. This follows revelations by the gold mine’s lawyer Andre Bezuidenhout that illegal mining activities were active at the mine before and after the tragedy. The inquest hearing into the tragic incident continues in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ntwaagae Seleka at News24
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