ActionSA Requests Portfolio Committee Hearing as Illegal Mining Turns Deadly at Lily Mine
Athol Trollip MP
ActionSA Parliamentary Leader
ActionSA will write to the Portfolio Committee on Mineral and Petroleum Resources, requesting that Minister Gwede Mantashe and Police Minister Prof. Cachalia urgently appear before the committee to account for the troubling deaths of two illegal miners at the Lily Mine in Mpumalanga.
Earlier this week, ActionSA raised the alarm over the escalating proliferation of illegal mining, despite repeated warnings about the growing criminality at the site. It further appears that there was an attempt to keep the deaths concealed, with new information suggesting that the police irregularly handled the bodies and have failed to act to stop the lawlessness at the mining site.
As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Lily Mine Tragedy, which claimed the lives of three innocent mine workers who remain trapped underground to this day, ActionSA is deeply concerned that government inaction and continued false promises of justice to the families have caused immense harm to these innocent people, while criminals now operate at the site with near-complete impunity.
ActionSA cannot reconcile the fact that, while government continues to deny the families of the Lily Mine victims the dignity of retrieving and laying their loved ones to rest, it has also allowed zama zamas engaged in illegal mining to operate freely without any law enforcement, placing surrounding communities at risk.
ActionSA will continue to demand justice for the Lily Mine families and hold the government accountable for its ongoing failure to honour its repeated commitments to them, as well as its flagrant disregard in addressing illegal mining at the site.
ActionSA Requests Portfolio Committee Hearing as Illegal Mining Turns Deadly at Lily Mine
ActionSA will write to the Portfolio Committee on Mineral and Petroleum Resources, requesting that Minister Gwede Mantashe and Police Minister Prof. Cachalia urgently appear before the committee to account for the troubling deaths of two illegal miners at the Lily Mine in Mpumalanga.
Earlier this week, ActionSA raised the alarm over the escalating proliferation of illegal mining, despite repeated warnings about the growing criminality at the site. It further appears that there was an attempt to keep the deaths concealed, with new information suggesting that the police irregularly handled the bodies and have failed to act to stop the lawlessness at the mining site.
As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Lily Mine Tragedy, which claimed the lives of three innocent mine workers who remain trapped underground to this day, ActionSA is deeply concerned that government inaction and continued false promises of justice to the families have caused immense harm to these innocent people, while criminals now operate at the site with near-complete impunity.
ActionSA cannot reconcile the fact that, while government continues to deny the families of the Lily Mine victims the dignity of retrieving and laying their loved ones to rest, it has also allowed zama zamas engaged in illegal mining to operate freely without any law enforcement, placing surrounding communities at risk.
ActionSA will continue to demand justice for the Lily Mine families and hold the government accountable for its ongoing failure to honour its repeated commitments to them, as well as its flagrant disregard in addressing illegal mining at the site.