Women rally for trapped miners’ families
Relatives of the Lily Mine employees trapped underground are receiving help from members of the community.
|||Johannesburg - On February 5, a section of the Lily Mine collapsed in Mpumalanga’s town of Barberton, resulting in a container with three miners inside falling down a sinkhole.
As soon as word of the disaster got out, families of the miners rushed to the scene to see if their loved ones were safe.
One by one, some of them eventually left, after finding out that their family members were safe.
But it was the start of a long vigil for the families of Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyarende.
They have not left the mine compound where their loved ones work and were swallowed by the ground during the cave-in.
As rescue workers went up and down, doing all they could to find the trio, the families were nearby in a white tent that the mine had erected.
They cried, sang and prayed for the safety of their loved ones.
It was in seeing the pain that these families go though as they live in the hope of getting good news that motivated four women from the community to come together to assist the families.
Ntombi Gama, 24, Busisiwe Mkhabela, 29, Joyce Siwela, 37, and Grace Mathonsi, 32, said they decided that the least they could do was to ensure the families were comfortable.
When they wake up in the morning, those who have school-going children get them ready for school. They then start cleaning their homes and leave at about 6.30am to walk a few kilometres to the mine.
When they get there, they find that the mine has prepared food for the families, so Gama, Mkhabela, Siwela and Mathonsi ensure that the families are served their breakfast.
Afterwards, they collect the breakfast dishes and start tidying up to ensure that the families stay in a clean environment.
When people bring food donations, the women take them out of the vehicles and carry them into the tents.
When officials from the Department of Social Services arrived at the mine with three vehicles filled with mattresses for the families to sleep on, it was the four women who helped to offload them.
Some of the elderly people there are on chronic medication, so the four women provide water for them to take their pills.
At lunchtime, they go around the tents serving the food, a procedure they repeat at suppertime.
After making sure the families have had their last meal of the day and that those on medication have taken their pills, they clean the tents before making their way home to be with their own families.
Gama said they want to be able to do all they can to help the families during their difficulty. They said Nyendere was their “comrade” and the ANC treasurer in Ward 30 B, Nkomazi.
“We don’t have jobs, so we will do this until it is over. I am happy that I am helping these old people.
“Some of them have weak knees. They are having a hard time coping with what happened to their children.
“We don’t want them to do anything. We are here to serve and assist them wherever we can,” Gama said.
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