Mine families speak of endless police harassment

Families of the dead miners still trapped underground at Lily Mine have braved severe harassment in the past 650 days of camping outside the shaft as they hopelessly wait for their relatives to be retrieved.

On 5 February, 2016 Lily Mine, just outside Barberton in Mpumalanga, reported that 90 of its workers were trapped 60 metres below the surface in a sinkhole after a tremor sank a lamp room container.

Soon thereafter, 87 mineworkers were rescued.

But for Elmon Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda, the ordeal had just begun for them and their families.

Yesterday marked five years since the disaster. Families held a memorial in the camp which has since become their home for almost two years.

They complained that the new owner of the mine, Vantage Goldfields, had constantly been harassing them with police, wanting them to move so that operations could resume.

The families are, however, undeterred as they say they are not going home until their loved ones are retrieved.

“This camp has been burned down a number of times. Police have come here with big guns and threatened to shoot us if we do not move,” said Sifiso Mavuso, who is the younger sibling of Nkambule, whose body remains trapped underground.

There has been a barrage of promises to retrieve the three bodies and help families find closure.

However families remain in the dark about the developments.

Assurances from the then minister of mineral resources, Mosebenzi Zwane, and Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza – who has since been redeployed – were that government remained committed to working with the mine in retrieving the container to bring closure to the families.

The department of mineral resources and energy yesterday said that an administrative fine of R1 million had been levied against Vantage Goldfields in September.