“Mbalula’s Lily Mine visit a cheap PR Stunt”- ActionSA

The Workers’ Day celebration has been labelled as a “cheap PR stunt” by ActionSA Mpumalanga.

This follows African National Congress Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula’s visit to Lily Mine on Tuesday, May 1.

In a statement issued by the party’s Provincial Chairperson, Thoko Mashiane it states that the families of the three trapped workers expressed how they felt insulted by Mbalula, the Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party(SACP)

“The families said Mbalula requested a meeting a day before the event, while posters about the celebration were already circulating all over.

One can only deduce that the delegation had no interest in finding solutions but using them for PR purposes,” reads the statement.

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It further states that the intention behind the march by COSATU and its alliance partners was questionable to the families.

This is because there was no one representing the victims’ families. Therefore they cannot claim to have represented the rights of Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda.

Mbalula promised that in next three months they will make sure that there will be a solution of ensuring that this mine is opened.

ActionSA says the promise is empty considering that the ANC government has had 7 years to retrieve the Lily Mine Three.

“There was no political party that had an interest, labour unions have distanced themselves from the Lily Mine matter.

All of a sudden, there is an interest from the ANC. What we know of is that South Africans are not stupid.”

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