Partner remembers mine tragedy

SHADRACK MDLULI slowly flips through photographs of his wife, with his eyes remaining fixed on her face.

When he dropped her off at work on February 5 last year, he had no idea it would be the last time he would see her.

Shortly afterwards, Yvonne Mnisi, Solomon Nyerende and Pretty Nkambule were trapped beneath 10 000 tons of rubble underground.

They were on duty in a lamproom that day when the container they were working in plunged into a sinkhole.

The bodies of the three workers have not ben recovered.

It’s been a year since he last saw her and he says he still remembers dropping her off at work on the morning of the tragedy.

With a pained look on his face, Mdluli describes the day of the collapse as the most heart-wrenching day of his life.

Reflecting on it he said: “What hurt the most was I had just dropped her off at work. About an hour later I received a call and was told the mine had collapsed.”

He immediately called Mnisi but “her phone was off, and I decided to call Solomon but his phone was off as well.”

The 33-year-old man said: “I am still hurt because that’s my wife who is underground.

“The pain is more bearable now. I am learning to come to terms with the fact I may never see her alive again.

“I drove her to work that morning not knowing it would be the last time I would be seeing her.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have asked her to stay at home.”

The tragedy has had a far-reaching effect on his family.

He has been separated from his two sons, Blesser and Junior and lost his job shortly after the disaster.

“Things have become terribly bad.

“Money and food are hard to come by. It’s not like before when we had the luxury of a stable household income.

“We have basically been crippled by this,” he says.

Mdluli was one of thousands of mineworkers who lost their jobs when Lily Mine closed down after the collapse.

He had worked at the mine as a scoop operator and along with his wife made a combined monthly income of about R29 000.

He was employed by Vantage Goldfields for 10 years and his wife for eight years.

This week the mine will hold a ceremony to honour the workers.