Barbeton - Vantage Goldfields assured parliamentary officials on Tuesday that it would spare no effort in ensuring that its three workers trapped underground at Lily Mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga, were rescued.
“We are now able to compile a report as the three committees for the consumption of Parliament. At this stage, we think that report will mainly focus on the steps that have to taken,” chairpersons of the portfolio committee on mineral resources, Sahlulele Luzipo, told reporters.
“We have been given assurances by both the department of mineral resources as well as by the management of the company that they are willing to go at whatever length to ensure that that rescue mission is a success and those people will be brought above the ground. That is the level of what we could do at this stage,” said Luzipo.
Luzipo said the parliamentary delegations wanted the trapped mineworkers - Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza and Solomon Nyarenda - brought out of the shaft “dead or alive”.
“Come rain, come what, we want those people out - dead or alive - we want them above the ground. That is the issue. We are not going to rest until those people have been rescued,” he said.
He was accompanied by chairperson of the portfolio committee on labour, Lumka Yengeni and chairperson of select committee on land and mineral resources Olifile Sefako.
Luzipo said the parliamentary delegation had met the families of the mineworkers.
“We are not expecting the families to say they are happy or satisfied or to enjoy the situation. All we did was tell them to remain strong, continue to believe that something is going to happen and continue to pray,” he said.
“Some of us were taught that when a situation of this nature happens, we give all the due respect and support. The families appreciated the fact that we took the time and we were here.”
Luzipo said the issue of financing the rescue mission for the three workers lay with Vantage Goldfields.
“The question will arise, ‘who were these workers for, which resources must be released?’ We cannot have people working for private companies and then talk about state resources to substitute. When someone is working for you, you take full responsibility,” said Luzipo.
“Government will make an intervention if it means it must make a contribution. Let that decision arise at such a point. We are drawing an assumption that the employers have said we don’t have money to rescue workers. Those are the things we said we want to avoid. Let’s concentrate on the rescuing of the workers,” said Luzipo.
“At this stage, for us, we don’t want to be talking about resources. At this stage, those things may not help us to move forward towards resolving this issue.”
Expert geological teams were working on Tuesday to reassess the possibility of taking rescuers underground at Lily Mine, where the mineworkers have been trapped for 11 days since February 5.
“Following on from our media release yesterday (Monday) about doing a 48-hour assessment, we are looking at the data at the moment. It seems as if everything has been a bit stable overnight so I’m taking taking a team underground this morning to go and assess the area along the shaft where we have been working for the rescue operation,” Lily Mine operations manager Mike Begg said.
“We basically have to come from underground and say (whether) that the shaft is still intact. Then the first thing we got to do is to try and establish a second escapeway. That will be the most important thing for us to do. We are looking at various options of that at the moment,” Begg said.
He said rescue teams could only be sent down the mine shaft once the assessments are completed.
Lily Mine, owned by Vantage Goldfields, is currently closed and rescue missions are on hold following two collapses at the sinkhole where the three miners remain trapped for more than a week.
Mnisi, Mabuza and Nyarenda became trapped underground when the container they were working in fell into a sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar before being covered by huge rocks.
Seventy six other workers were rescued following the collapse.
On Saturday, Vantage Goldfields offered R200 000 to the families of each of the three miners still trapped.
The other workers who were rescued would be compensated R50 000 each the company said.
African News Agency
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