Johannesburg - The People's Dialogue legal team has lodged a court application for documents necessary to "enjoin" government to retrieve the bodies of three mine workers trapped underground in a container when a structure collapsed at the entrance to Vantage Goldfields SA's Lily Mine near Barberton in Mpumalanga in February 2016.
The documents in question are the annexures used to substantiate a 2018 health and safety report which found that the container could not be retrieved, The People's Dialogue founder Herman Mashaba said in a statement on Sunday.
Similarly, a report from the mine rescue services was also part of the application. This was the same mine rescue services that travelled to Chile in 2010 to assist in the rescue of trapped Chilean miners.
"Once we are in possession of these documents, we will then be in a position to assess them and challenge the rationality of the decision behind declaring the container irretrievable," he said.
Every matter relating to the efforts to obtain justice for the trapped miners - Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi, and Solomon Nyirenda - and their families had been obstructed with what appeared to be "a concerted campaign to protect the interests of Vantage". Given the pattern of corruption in South Africa, "I want this process to get to the bottom of who is benefitting politically", Mashaba said.
"We are confident that government and the department of mineral resources will respond favourably to our request, given that pressure has been mounting since The People’s Dialogue has taken this matter on."
However, should the "same pattern of obstructionism emerge, we have the legal team to take this matter to an open court of law to expose the comprehensive and coordinated efforts, at all costs, to prevent that container being retrieved".
"Justice matters, and it matters for the families of the three trapped miners. The families have been deprived proper burials of their loved ones. The families and former workers remain camped outside of the mine, while those responsible for the collapse live free and in comfort," Mashaba said.