Pretoria - The Minister of Mineral Resources and Mining was not compelled to announce that his department would compensate the families of three mineworkers who are still trapped underground at a Barberton mine.
This is according to Amcu’s Joseph Mathunjwa, who, along with family members of the three mineworkers yesterday marched to the department to demand the tragedy at Lily Mine six months ago should be declared a national disaster in order for the government to fund an operation to recover the bodies of Yvonne Mnisi, Solomon Nyerende, and Pretty Nkambule.
They also demanded that minister Mosebenzi Zwane should remain true to his word and pay the three families R200 000, while paying surviving workers R50 000 that he promised a few days after the tragedy.
Mnisi, Nyerende, and Nkambule were trapped underground when the lamp-room container they were working in fell into a massive sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar.
Rescue operations were launched in February in an attempt to recover the bodies of the three workers, but later aborted as the mine was declared unsafe. “The minister said he would donate R200 000 to the three families and R50 000 to the surviving workers - nobody said he should. He wasn’t bound to make that promise. Why hasn’t he kept his promise?” Mathunjwa said at the entrance of the department’s offices in Pretoria.
Mathunjwa was particularly irate with the reception they received at the offices and accused Zwane of being arrogant and unco-operative for failing to present himself to receive a memorandum that was drafted by Amcu, family of members of the trio, and workers who were employed by Vantage Goldfields’ Lily Mine.
Such was his irritation that Mathunjwa refused to hand over the memorandum to the department’s acting director-general David Msiza and the deputy chief inspector Xolile Mbonambi, demanding to hand it over to the minister.
“The minister is arrogant for not honouring our meeting. We made an appointment with him and he knew we would be here,” Mathunjwa said. “If he can’t make it here and is engaged in a meeting elsewhere, let us meet with his deputy. But we will not be disrespected like this. We have travelled hours from Mpumalanga.”
Yvonne Mnisi’s husband, Shadrack Mdluli, said he had to take a severance package as a means of income after the mine applied to be placed under business rescue administration. “It’s difficult to provide for my family after the mine closed down. We had two salaries coming into the household, now we have no salary,” Mdluli said.
“We need the government to inject money into the recovery operation so we can get back our loved ones. When the collapse happened he (Zwane) lied to us and said he would provide R200 000 to us but we haven’t heard from anyone in his department,” he said.
Christopher Mazibuko, who was married to Pretty Nkambule, was equally aggrieved, saying Zwane promised to make the recovery operation a priority but has failed to keep his word. “He came to the mine and made bold promises and said there would be hope. He said we would not be forgotten, but six months down the line, we still haven’t seen any of the promises that he made,” Mazibuko said.
PRETORIA NEWS