Mbalula’s Lily Mine Visit a Cheap PR Stunt

The families of Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyirenda say they feel insulted by Fikile Mbalula and his COSATU and SACP alliance when they visited the Lily Mine site to mark Workers’ Day yesterday.

The victims’ families said Mbalula and company requested a meeting a day before the event, whilst posters were all over advertising that they would be at Lily Mine. The families felt belittled by the tripartite alliance over their lack of prior engageyment for this obvious PR stunt. One can only deduce that the delegation had no interest in finding solutions but using them for publicity.

The intention behind the march by COSATU and its alliance partners was questionable to the families because there was no one representing the victims’ families, and therefore cannot claim they were representing the rights of Yvonne, Pretty and Solomon.

Mbalula promised that in next three months they will make sure that there will be a solution of ensuring that this mine is opened.

This promise is empty considering that the ANC government has had 7 years to retrieve the Lily Mine Three but has done nothing to assist and at times even been an obstacle to progress in this regard.

ActionSA have spent over R2 million already to have authorities resolve the matter. There was no political party that had an interest, labour unions have distanced themselves from the Lily Mine matter. Today, all of a sudden, there is an interest from the ANC. What we know of is that South Africans are not stupid.

The DMRE’s deafening silence continues to this day. Nonetheless and no matter how long it takes, ActionSA will not be deterred in the efforts to have mine management and the ANC government be held accountable for this tragedy because like all our lives, the lives of the Lily Mine families and former miners matter too.

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