Johannesburg - Mining community organisations yesterday weighed in on the Lily Mine accident, calling for the directors of the mine to be held personally liable should negligence be proven.
Mandla Mbongeni Hadebe, the programmes manager at the Cape Town headquartered Economic Justice Network, said yesterday that mining companies put more emphasis on profit than the safety and security of mineworkers.
Read: State not funding Lily Mine rescue
“We demand stronger implementation of the safety and security laws of our country and where negligence can be proved the mining companies should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the laws,” Hadebe said.
“The courts and the Department of Minerals authorities must send a strong signal that the lives of mineworkers matter far more than the profits which are made daily and spirited off to the pockets of a few greedy beneficiaries,” he said.
Three mineworkers - Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza and Solomon Nyarenda - have been trapped underground for 11 days since a container they were working in fell into a sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar.
The employees were working in the shipping container office when the entrance of the mine collapsed, leading to the container falling into the ground and being covered by huge rocks.
Seventy-six others were rescued after the collapse.
Last weekend, search missions were suspended after two collapses happened at the mine.
Vantage Goldfields, the owner of Lily mine, has offered R50 000 to each of the workers who were rescued and R200 000 for the three workers who are still underground. Hadebe said Vantage Goldfields’ offer of R200 000 for the trapped mineworkers was not enough to bring the employees back.
“It’s not going to bring back those who have unfortunately been taken by this incident. It is not going to go anywhere near (where it will) improve the safety of miners,” Hadebe said.
Catherine Horsfield, an attorney and mining programme head at the Centre for Environmental Rights, said the mining industry had not implemented safety regulations adequately.
“Too often there is inadequate, and at times an absence of, compliance monitoring of mining operations by the Department of Mineral Resources, leaving this hazardous industry to regulate itself, with disastrous consequences,” she said.
Sietse van der Woude, the senior executive for modernisation and safety at the Chamber of Mines, told SAfm yesterday that the Lily Mine rescue mission had been difficult.
“This situation has been the most technically complex rescue in decades,” he said.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane yesterday called for “extraordinary measures” to ensure the three mineworkers were rescued.
Zwane said rescue teams would be reinforced to include rock engineers and other experts to assess the rock fall after a third ground collapse was reported there on Sunday.
Zwane visited the mine on Saturday to assess the progress on the rescue operations and also spoke to family members of the three mineworkers who were still trapped underground.
“We have been advised that it would be best not to send anyone underground, but as soon as it has been declared safe to do so, the rescue teams will get back to work, as our main priority remains that of getting the three employees out,” Zwane said.
President Jacob Zuma has delegated Zwane, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women Susan Shabangu, and Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini to provide support to the families of the miners who were still trapped underground at the mine.
* With additional reporting by ANA
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