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A ground-breaking study by ActionSA National Spokesperson, Lerato Ngobeni, has revealed how the Lily Mine Tragedy is a grave example of the collapse of South Africa’s Criminal Justice. Much like the brutal murder of Gauteng Department of Health official, Babita Deokaran, or the yet-to-begin trial of the police officials who killed 16-year old Nathaniel Julies last year, the Lily Mine has brought into sharp focus the extent of the incapacity of our Criminal Justice agencies. 

The study provides a global picture into the Lily Mine tragedy, detailing the gruesome events which began on 5 February 2016 when three young miners, Pretty Nkambule (22), Yvonne Mnisi (30), and Solomon Nyirenda (37), were trapped underground and ultimately passed away. This was after the surface ground, along with a shipping container that the miners used as a lamp room, caved into old underground mine workings at the Lily Mine. It provides a comparative analysis of how this matter has been dealt with by the ANC-led democratic government as against a similar matter in San Jose, Chile. 

The study further traverses the developments of our post-democratic order since 1994. It reveals how the ANC’s steadfast, and ultimately successful, attempts to bring Criminal Justice agencies to keel have ultimately led to the state of paralysis and dysfunction which, today, affects all South Africans’ ability to enjoy their constitutional rights to equality before the law; life; human dignity; freedom and security of the person; as well as freedom of trade, occupation, and profession.

It concludes that, ultimately, to restore public faith in the criminal justice system, the South African government would have to muster the political will necessary to restore the rule of law. This cannot be done with the ANC in power. In the coming elections, South Africans must ensure that we take this opportunity to start the process of finally ridding ourselves of the cancer that is the ANC, a truly criminal enterprise that is masquerading as a political party. 

ActionSA will not cease to support for the Lily Mine families regardless of the time it takes for the uncaring South African government to respond to their plight. It is most disheartening that this government continually prioritises the lives of illegal immigrants, unscrupulous business interests and corrupt politicians over the ordinary, hard-working, law-abiding, and peace-loving people of our country.

Issued by ActionSA