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Press Statement, 02 February 2022

NUM calls on government, business and religious sectors to make money available to retrieve bodies of the three trapped mineworkers at Lily Mine in Mpumalanga

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is making an appeal to the leadership of government, business and religious sectors to avail money to assist the families of Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyirenda and Yvonne Mnisi in retrieving their trapped bodies from the belly of the Lily Mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga.

The mine collapsed three years ago, trapping the three underground and injuring hundreds of other mineworkers.

The NUM is joining the victims' families and community members at large in marking a thousand days of camping outside the mine with a hope that a samaritan will show up and offer help in getting out the trapped poor mineworkers.
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"As the NUM, we are making an appeal to the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa to take a lead through his international networks to come up with donors who can assist. We are also calling on the business leaders,  in particular, the Mineral Council South Africa, the High Commissioners of countries with bigger economies and the religious groupings to come out and see how they can assist. Our  immediate wish is to see those poor mineworkers retrieved from underground and be buried in dignity. Certainly, their families need to find closure. It was unfortunate that some people in certain political organisations were taking advantage of the pains those families were experiencing by politicising this unfortunate incident, providing empty promises to them. We strongly condemn such people. Those people are playing with the emotions of the victims instead of mobilising funds to assist them, said NUM President, Joseph Montisetse.

"As the NUM, we still maintain our view that every mine owner should be held responsible for the loss of lives or injuries, so in this case the owners of the Vintage Gold must be held fully responsible. Those bosses have been given a free ride. They must be arrested and prosecuted”, Montisetse added.