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Magistrate Annemarie van der Merwe found that the deaths of the three workers were caused by omission on the part of the Vantage Goldfields and/or mine management to do a proper assessment as required by the Mine Health and Safety Act.

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Sizwe sama Yende

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has not yet taken a decision on who should be criminally charged for the collapse of Lily Mine in Mpumalanga on February 5 2016.

Magistrate Annemarie van der Merwe delivered her judgment on the inquest of the disaster at the Barberton Magistrate’s Court in October last year and found that illegal mining contributed to the collapse and that the police and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) were merely giving “lip service” to solving the problem of illegal mining.

Illegal miners caused a crown (a piece of ground above a shaft) held by pillars to collapse. The zama zamas, believed to be 50 groups of about 10 to 20 individuals, were chipping off gold on the pillars until they were eventually too weak to carry the weight of the crown above them.

Three mineworkers - Solomon Nyirenda (37), Yvonne Mnisi (30) and Pretty Nkambule (22) – were working in a container office when the disaster happened. The office plunged about 60 metres underground and was buried under rubble.

Their bodies were never retrieved due to a stalemate on the sale of Lily and its sister mine, Barbrook, which were immediately put under business rescue following the disaster. Once the sale is concluded, the new owner will be expected to start with retrieving the bodies.

The mines’ proprietor - Australian company, Vantage Goldfields - had been involved in a lengthy legal tussle with potential investor, Arqomanzi (Pty) Ltd, whom Vantage Goldfields has taken a vehement decision not to sell to despite the company being the sole and only serious bidder still standing to purchase Lily and Barbrook mines.

Mpumalanga NPA spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, said that the NPA was still deliberating on who to hold liable for the collapse since the inquest outcome was delivered.

This week, families of the three workers and their former colleagues, were supported by Action SA leader, Herman Mashaba, to stage a picket at the NPA’s offices in Pretoria to complain about the prosecutors’ snail’s pace in implementing the inquest judgement.

“The panel assigned to determine whether to prosecute the matter has to meet to discuss the likelihood of further investigation to explore questions of liability,” Nyuswa said.

Van der Merwe found that the deaths of the three workers were caused by omission on the part of the Vantage Goldfields and/or mine management to do a proper assessment as required by the Mine Health and Safety Act.

The DMRE inquiry had previously revealed how the mine’s management ignored advice from rock experts not to mine in precarious areas.

Van der Merwe forwarded a record of the inquest proceedings to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, to explore the possibility of instituting criminal proceedings.

About the police’s and DMRE’s role in the disaster, Van der Merwe said: “It is therefore found that they had failed at the time to ensure the safety of the three lamp room attendants who had perished in an incident that happened as a result of the activities of illegal miners."

She said the two state institutions failed in their constitutional duty to protect the republic's inhabitants and to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations.

An undercover informant of the Hawks and crime intelligence explained in detail during the inquest how zama zama’s colluded with mine employees to steal gold.

The informant said that illegal miners would enter the shafts in worked-out stopes, referred to as old or madala sites, and spend weeks or months underground digging for gold.

To keep them alive during this process, legally employed workers provided them with food (mainly chicken or tinned food) and bottled water. In return, they were given gold.

He said that entry to the underground work areas was gained either by paying bribes to the Fidelity security guards, who then escorted the zama-zamas to the sites, or by dressing like legal mine workers and carrying legally authorised equipment.