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ActionSA is extremely dismayed that Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has disrespected the laws of the country by extending a mining licence to Vantage Goldfields to reopen Lily Mine, the very same company that is partly responsible for the tragedy at the mine on 5 February 2016 where three people where engulfed in a sinkhole. 

With this decision, Minister Mantashe chose corporate allegiances above the interest of the families of the Lily Mine victims. How is it possible for the minister to work with the very same company that was responsible for the tragedy, and disregard the work over a number of years of the Business Rescue Practitioners? 

Minister Mantashe’s decision flies in the face of an inquest by the Mbombela Magistrate’s Court last year October that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should consider criminal prosecutions against a number of individuals - including Vantage Goldfields mine management, Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) officials and certain police officials - and a Constitutional Court ruling that a business rescue plan should be tabled to Vantage Goldfields’ creditors. 

The move by Minister Mantashe affirms why the families of the Lily Mine victims were entitled to bring their legal representatives to a stakeholder meeting with the mineral resources and energy ministry this week to ensure that their rights and best interests are protected when they have been disappointed so many times before. The ministry, however, denied the families their request. 

ActionSA has over the years worked tirelessly to achieve justice for the families, and it is through our legal team, at a massive cost, that we were able to expose the lies of the ministry and the mine owners so that the bodies of the victims could not be retrieved. The families of the Lily Mine victims have already given me power of attorney to institute civil proceedings against the individuals found to be possibly guilty of the tragedy if the NPA refuses to do so. As ActionSA, we have determined that mining operations at the mine should be restarted in order for the three victims to be retrieved and that the families should be compensated for the tragedy which occurred.

It remains unacceptable that eight months since the Mbombela Magistrate’s court ruling, and after having promised to make a decision by the end of January this year, the NPA is yet to make a decision on possible prosecutions while the family awaits justice. The DMRE themselves have allowed the Business Rescue Practitioners to be in contempt of three court orders which determined that a proposal should be tabled to creditors to restart mining operations.

ActionSA is resolute in our commitment to help retrieve the bodies of the three miners and will continue to assist the families in any way possible. We cannot allow people to forget what happened at Lily Mine on 05 February 2016, and we need to ensure justice for the miners and their families.

Issued by ActionSA President Herman Mashaba