ActionSA says use of public funds to rescue Stilfonein zama zamas shows contempt for families of Lily Mine victims

JOHANNESBURG - ActionSA said the use of public funds to rescue illegal miners in Stilfontein spits in the face of three families whose loved ones died at Lily Mine almost a decade ago.

Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi, and Solomon Nyirenda died in 2016 when a section of the mine they were working in, in Mpumalanga, collapsed.  

Despite repeated calls by their families, their remains were never recovered.  

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ActionSA led the ninth commemoration at the site of the accident on Wednesday, where the party’s top brass joined relatives and former employees of Vantage Goldfields in their renewed calls for justice for the three miners.  

The event in 2025 comes just a few weeks after a special operation was conducted to bring illegal miners back to the surface in Stilfontein in a bid to clamp down on illegal mining.  

The government-sanctioned operation in Stilfontein was the first of its kind – a costly exercise and a massive show of technical mining expertise.  

While an operation to retrieve the three bodies in Lily Mine was thought to be too dangerous, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the operation in Stilfontein is proof that where there’s a will, there’s a way. 

"Nine years later, our own government is working with the private sector to ensure that their names are forgotten."

Mashaba had previously written to the mine owners, offering to retrieve the bodies at the expense of ActionSA.