Moneyweb reports that on Tuesday this week, the families of Solomon Nyirenda, Yvonne Mnisi and Pretty Nkambule had been camped outside the Lily gold mine gate in Mpumalanga for 1,316 days – and they say they will stay there another 1,316 days if that’s what it takes to recover the bodies of their loved ones.
They set up camp on 30 April 2019 to draw attention to one of the worst mining tragedies in recent SA mining history. On 5 February 2016, a key support pillar collapsed at Lily, trapping 76 miners underground. Included among them were Nyirenda, Mnisi and Nkambule, who dispensed safety equipment from a container at ground level. When the support pillar collapsed, the container and its occupants were sent crashing into the bowels of the mine, and remain there to this day. The family members want closure, and those responsible for the tragedy to be held to account. There is no doubt in their minds that the former management at Vantage Goldfields is to blame – though that is currently the subject of a magisterial inquest. Following the tragedy, three mining companies – Vantage Goldfields, Barbrook and Mimco, which owns the Lily mine – were placed under business rescue. Seven years and several court cases later, there is a glimmer of hope that matters will come to a legal resolution in the first half of 2023, allowing the mining operations to recommence. For the roughly 700 former mine workers impacted, that couldn’t come too soon.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ciaran Ryan at Moneyweb
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