ActionSA has expressed disappointment in the DMRE’s slow action to retrieve the bodies of the Lily Mine tragedy, accusing it of running away from accountability using politics.
The leader of ActionSA, Herman Mashaba, released a statement on Sunday, 3 July 2022, addressing the retrieval of the Lily Mine three. Mashaba stressed that ActionSA was baffled by the letter they received from Minister Gwede Mantashe’s office, which he believes displays complete disdain for the Lily Mine disaster and its victims. Mashaba explained that in the letter, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) claimed to have the best interests of the grieving families at heart, but that its actions were contradicting this claim.
Mashaba stated that instead of supporting the families, the DMRE has chosen to hide behind what he considers bureaucracy and red tape and quoted the department, which allegedly stated that it was “respecting and not interfering with both the business rescue and legal proceedings.” According to Mashaba, this is a hollow solace for the victims and their families, and that there was a real human cost for the six-year delay in retrieving the container that holds the bodies of the deceased, Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi, and Solomon Nyirenda, who tragically lost their lives on the morning of 5 February 2016.
He further stressed with concern that the deceased were spouses, partners, and parents to children who are now growing up with the pain of seeing their grandparents camping out at the foot of the mine in protest to have their loved ones’ bodies retrieved from underground, so that they can finally be laid to rest with dignity.
ActionSA advised the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy that as a party, it should be exploring all options available to it to retrieve the bodies, and that this should be an exercise separate from the dilatory business rescue process and ancillary litigation. The party believes these are being used to avoid ultimate accountability.
It also claims that the dispute regarding the ownership of the mine should not be used to run away from the obligation – moral or otherwise – to retrieve the container with the bodies. In closing, it urged Mantashe and the DMRE to show some compassion and to stop hiding behind politics and the ongoing commercial litigation, as this is about the lives that were tragically lost.
