Ex-Lily Mine workers vow to continue camping outside deserted mine

SABC News writes that Former Lily Mine workers, along with the families of the three employees trapped underground when the mine collapsed in 2016, held a prayer service on Sunday to mark 2000 days of camping outside the mine premises. The family members and some of the former workers have been living in a tent erected outside the mine to put pressure on mine management to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones. Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyirenda were declared dead by the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court last year.

Speaking on behalf of the affected families, former mine worker, Harry Mazibuko says they have not lost hope that the remains of the three will one day be retrieved and buried with dignity. “I still have hope because we cannot lose hope without closure. Yes, some other times it comes to your mind that… no, let us just give up. But the problem is our colleagues inside the mine because (they are) our people with whom we laughed together with. We talked. We did a lot. So (because) of the memory, that’s why you can’t just say, no, now I’m hopeless,” he explains.

Mazibuko adds, “Planning is in the pipeline with the intervention of Herman Mashaba. They are weighing options now. They say it’s cost over 10 million to approach the international courts. The only hope we have is that we must go that route because we’ve been to the last court in the land.”

by Mthobisi Mkhaliphi

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