ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has written to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) giving it 14 days to make a decision or not in relation to the Lily Mine tragedy of 2016.
On February 5, 2016 Solomon Nyirenda, Yvonne Mnisi and Pretty Nkambule were trapped underground after a mine collapsed in Mpumalanga.
The three were in a container that plunged 60m during the collapse, with their remains still at the site to date.
Mashaba said the party has written to the Deputy Director of Prosecutions in Mpumalanga, advocate Mlungisi Magwanyana, to make a decision the “NPA will prosecute those complicit” in the tragedy.
“The Mbombela Magistrate’s court already found, in mid-October last year, that the NPA should consider criminal prosecution against individuals, including the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, but after the NPA vowed to do so by the end of January, they have yet to announce a decision.
“Since I became involved in the matter, I received power of attorney from the families to pursue, if necessary, civil and criminal litigation against the parties found liable. It is therefore imperative that the NPA makes a decision on whether to prosecute so as to allow ActionSA to consider its options, legal or otherwise,” Mashaba said.
Earlier this year Mashaba said it was “heartbreaking that the remains of the three employees who died at Lily Mine have not been retrieved eight years later”.
He said the party's legal team will continue to pursue this matter until the bodies are retrieved.
In December, in written correspondence to ActionSA, Magwanyana said a panel of advocates who have been tasked to study the Mbombela Magistrate’s Court inquest into the tragedy will only return to office in the new year and will only make a determination whether to prosecute then.
The Mercury