ActionSA: SCA refusal to delay Lily Mine hearing a step towards justice

ActionSA says the Supreme Court of Appeal’s rejection of a request by Vantage Goldfields to delay Lily Mine court hearings to next year is a step closer to justice.

Three employees of the mine – Pretty Nkambule; Yvonne Mnisi; and Solomon Nyirenda went missing in 2016 after a part of the mine collapsed, and an inquiry into the tragedy is underway at the Mbombela Magistrate’s court in Nelspruit.

The bodies of the three miners have been trapped underground since, and their families – who seek closure, have not been able to bury them.

Vantage Goldfields put Lily Mine under business rescue because the incident in 2016 meant that they could not continue mining, resulting in financial challenges and the inability to retrieve the bodies.

However, a litigation process between Arqomanzi and Vantage Goldfields South Africa has delayed the re-opening of the mine.

Vantage Goldfields assured the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) that they would be able to fund the proposed rescue plans by the practitioners in the form of a “financial capability statement” from HSBC Hong Kong – one of the world’s largest banks.

The BRPs accepted Vantage Goldfield’s surety, but Arqomanzi then interdicted what they called the BRPs’ unlawful implementation of the proposal.

Vantage Goldfields challenged the interdict through the Supreme Court of Appeal after their application for leave to appeal the judgement was dismissed.

However, the court’s acting president says the matter cannot be struck off the roll and that the hearings will continue in November this year.

“ActionSA has long maintained that Vantage Goldfields have applied Stalingrad tactics and is now, through its lawyers, hopeful that the court will bring closure to the families of Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirende who died at the mine in February 2016,” said ActionSA in a statement.

-EWN

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