AN AGONY WITH NO END IN SIGHT
THE LILY MINE DISASTER — ONE YEAR ON
A DESOLATE Shadrack Given Mdluli sits in his modest twobedroom home in Louieville, near Barberton in Mpumalanga.
He built the house with the help of his wife, Yvonne Mnisi, one of the three people who were trapped underground at Vantage Goldfields’ Lily Mine near Barberton on February 5 last year when a central pillar collapsed.
The resulting sinkhole swallowed Mnisi, Solomon Nyerenda and Pretty Nkambule, who were inside a shipping container that had been converted for use as a lamp room.
Their bodies have never been recovered, but Mdluli has not given up hope that his wife’s remains will be found.
He said Vantage Goldfields had been silent on whether it still hoped to recover the bodies.
“We have heard that the mine is looking for money to resume its operations, but we have heard nothing since,” Mdluli said, holding a picture of his wife and their son, Junior, 7.
Mdluli was also employed at the mine. Like most of the about 700 people who worked there, he now has no job.
The mineworkers are still waiting for the three months of pay they were promised in July last year.
A representative of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, Frans Mkhabela, said this week that the union wanted the bodies of the victims to be recovered before mining operations resumed.
Mdluli has been surviving on donations from Gift of the Givers and payments from the South African Social Security Agency. He worked for a few weeks in November at another Vantage Goldfields mine, Barbrook, before it closed in December.
Some 2km away, Nkambule’s widower, Christopher Mazibuko, said it had been difficult to explain to the youngest of his four children what happened to her mother.
“Government should have taken steps to assist in the rescue efforts,” Mazibuko said.
Sifiso Nkabinde, who worked at Lily Mine, has been out of work since the cave-in.
He now collects marula fruit in his wheelbarrow to sell to the community. “They promised to pay us in December, but they have not,” Nkabinde said.
Sikender Aslam, who runs Louisville Supermarket and Hardware, said sales at his shop had dropped sharply since the mine tragedy.
“I granted credit of close to R100 000. I have now written it off as a loss.”
Aslam said some of the men who used to work at Lily Mine were now working on farms in the area, but these jobs did not pay as well as the mine had.
He said the tragedy and the resulting loss of income for many had led to a dramatic increase in crime.
Aslam said the Lily Mine premises were under permanent guard because residents stole anything they could find there, including tools and airconditioning units.
He said there had been three burglary attempts at his shop in the past few months, and a truck delivering cold drinks to a nearby shop had been robbed last week.
They promised to pay us in December, but they have not We have heard that the mine is looking for money to resume its operations, but we have heard nothing since