ActionSA wants probe into Lily Mine tragedy

More than eight years after the Lily Mine tragedy, ActionSA has appealed to the National Assembly to investigate the tragedy, which claimed three lives of miners who were trapped in a container after the ground collapsed.

With the power of attorney granted by the families of Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyirenda, ActionSA is seeking to hold those responsible accountable.

Elon Mnisi, the father of miner Yvonne Mnisi, says he is afraid that a decade will approach and they still wouldn’t be anywhere near retrieving the body of his daughter.

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He told The Citizen the intervention by Herman Mashaba could be what the families needed against the “uncaring” government.

“We have endured years of suffering and torment from not being able to bury our children. There isn’t anything they can do that can end the anguish except to be able to get to the container and retrieve the bodies. We would have closure.

“But right now, the pain is as raw as it was on that fateful day of February 2016,” Mnisi said.

Mashaba said the party wrote to the National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza, as well as Deputy Speaker Annelie Lotriet, to escalate the matter and investigate the “abuse” of justice.

“It is an abuse of human rights that more than eight years after the Lily Mine tragedy occurred, the families are not one step closer to closure as they have been repeatedly let down by the department of mineral resources and energy (DMRE), Minister Gwede Mantashe, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and mine owners,” he said.

The Mbombela Magistrate’s Court ruled in October 2023 that owners of Lily Mine failed to conduct proper risk assessments, while the DMRE and Saps failed to combat the issue, all contributing to the horrific tragedy as it could’ve been prevented.

ALSO READ: Mashaba leads picket to Mantashe’s office over Lily Mine tragedy

“The NPA has taken no action to criminally charge anyone. We believe the National Assembly has the relevant powers through legislation to investigate the tragedy through a portfolio committee and hold state entities accountable for their failure,” Mashaba said.

Mantashe on 15 May held a stakeholder engagement session that deliberated on the plans to reopen the Lily and Barbrook gold mines in Mpumalanga.

The DMRE granted Vantage Goldfields permission to reopen the mines. But while this would allow for the container with the three victims’ bodies to be retrieved, Mnisi criticised this, citing the minister wanted to reissue the mining licence at the expense of their suffering.