ActionSA Responds to Mbalula’s Careless Video Clip Comments on Lily Mine
Thoko Mashiane
ActionSA Mpumalanga Provincial Chairperson
ActionSA is deeply dismayed by ANC Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula’s comments on Lily Mine during a press briefing ahead of the ANC’s January 8 rally in Mpumalanga where he carelessly and flippantly responds to a journalist’s question regarding a task team he had set up and led by the Mayor of Nkomazi Local Municipality, Phindile Magagula.
In his response Mbalula blames our judiciary for derailing the process to get Lily Mine reopened and for work to resume at the Mine. What is disturbing is that Mbalula completely ignores the fact that a tragedy took place at Lily Mine. Three people met their untimely demise there. We wish to remind Fikile Mbalula and the ANC that the lives of Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyirenda and Yvonne Mnisi matter. That there are elderly parents, children, spouses, and extended family members of the three miners still longing to bury their loved one with dignity and find closure.
Last Worker’s Day 01 May 2023, together with the tripartite alliance, Mbalula assured the nation that within 3 months from that visit, the Business Rescue Process would be finalised, the container that has entombed Pretty, Solomon and Yvonne’s remains would be retrieved, and work resume earnestly at the Mine. Despite writing to Mbalula’s office to check on progress after the 3 months in August 2023, none of what Mbalula uttered on that day has materialised.
And so here we are once again when on 5 February 2024 this year will mark 8 years of the Lily Mine Tragedy. ActionSA wants to once again challenge Mbalula, his comrades in the ANC government that no amount of blame shifting nor derailing will deter us from fighting for the Lily Mine families. No reopening of the Mine will happen without retrieving the container and the families who have been camping at the foot of the Mine being compensated for their suffering.
ActionSA Responds to Mbalula’s Careless Video Clip Comments on Lily Mine
ActionSA is deeply dismayed by ANC Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula’s comments on Lily Mine during a press briefing ahead of the ANC’s January 8 rally in Mpumalanga where he carelessly and flippantly responds to a journalist’s question regarding a task team he had set up and led by the Mayor of Nkomazi Local Municipality, Phindile Magagula.
In his response Mbalula blames our judiciary for derailing the process to get Lily Mine reopened and for work to resume at the Mine. What is disturbing is that Mbalula completely ignores the fact that a tragedy took place at Lily Mine. Three people met their untimely demise there. We wish to remind Fikile Mbalula and the ANC that the lives of Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyirenda and Yvonne Mnisi matter. That there are elderly parents, children, spouses, and extended family members of the three miners still longing to bury their loved one with dignity and find closure.
Last Worker’s Day 01 May 2023, together with the tripartite alliance, Mbalula assured the nation that within 3 months from that visit, the Business Rescue Process would be finalised, the container that has entombed Pretty, Solomon and Yvonne’s remains would be retrieved, and work resume earnestly at the Mine. Despite writing to Mbalula’s office to check on progress after the 3 months in August 2023, none of what Mbalula uttered on that day has materialised.
And so here we are once again when on 5 February 2024 this year will mark 8 years of the Lily Mine Tragedy. ActionSA wants to once again challenge Mbalula, his comrades in the ANC government that no amount of blame shifting nor derailing will deter us from fighting for the Lily Mine families. No reopening of the Mine will happen without retrieving the container and the families who have been camping at the foot of the Mine being compensated for their suffering.