The families and former workers at Lily mine in Lowscreek in Mpumalanga have hosted a prayer service to mark 500 days camping outside the mine premises.
The mine was closed four years ago after it caved-in trapping three miners.
The bodies of Solomon Nyirenda, Pretty Nkambule and Yvonne Mnisi are still trapped underground.
Efforts to retrieve them were abandoned for safety reasons.
Spokesperson of the families and former mineworkers, Harry Mazibuko says, “We are going to the highest court in South Africa [Constitutional Court] to file an application against Vantage Goldfields South Africa (VGSA) and Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). The department is playing hide and seek … [the department must] tell SA and the world what is holding the way forward to retrieve the container.”
“Because the question of Vantage is and has always been that they don’t have money to go underground and retrieve the container. On the other hand, there is Aquamanzi the company committed to retrieve the container,” explains Mazibuko.
Earlier this year, Lily Mine workers wanted the mine to be reopened:
