The families of the three Lily Mine workers who died after a steel container office they were in fell into a sinkhole when the mine collapsed in 2016, contemplate suing Vantage Gold Field Mine, the Business Rescue Practitioners and Mineral Resources and Energy Department.
An inquest into the mine disaster found that government’s failure to address illegal mining caused the collapse. And Vantage Goldfields’ failure to do a proper assessment under the Mine Health and Safety Act is also to be blamed.
ActionSA President Herman Mashaba met the families of the three unaccounted miners in Matsulu east of Mbombela, Mpumalanga. The bodies of the workers are yet to be retrieved from the mine.
Mashaba says they will assist the families institute civil claims.
“Because of the experiences we have endured over the last seven years we are saying let us be derailed of our future on the retrieval of this container to our law enforcement agencies let us put pressure on them. As ActionSA, we commit even to assist the families to using the court judgment on Thursday that with immediate effect institute civil claims against anyone who is pointed out in the judgment on Friday.”
