They are Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Susan Shabangu, and Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini.

Saturday marked eight days since Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza and Solomon Nyarenda were trapped underground when the lamp room container they were working in fell into the sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar before being covered by huge rocks.

The ministers would work with the provincial government to provide support to the affected families, the presidency said.

Earlier on Saturday, Zwane announced that Lily Mine owners, Vantage Goldfields, had offered R200 000 for each of the three mineworkers still trapped underground.

Zwane told reporters outside the mine shaft that there was also compensation for the 76 miners rescued from the mine after last Friday’s collapse.

“I’m saying I have engaged with the mine. The effort that I have announced [the money] is specifically from the mine,” Zwane said.

“After our engagement with the mine, we agreed that ‘let’s look after our workers’. After all, these people work for all of us, we agreed. We came to an understanding that those who survived will each get R50 000 and for the three still trapped underneath the soil, by the time we get their container above the ground, each of them gets R200 000.”

He said the mine had been “selfless” in the deliberations and this was not the time for South Africans to be pointing fingers and laying blame.

“We have a crisis. People are trapped under the ground for the last eight days. Our focus should be to get the people above the surface and be able to support their families and give them hope. The issues of investigations and what caused the accident, we will deal with that after we have achieved our main goal – to save the people from this atrocity,” said Zwane.

Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president, Joseph Mathunjwa, said he remained optimistic that the three miners would be brought safely to the surface.

“We are very optimistic. If the families [of the miners] are still optimistic, why should we lose hope? We cannot lose hope at this point in time,” Mathunjwa told journalists at the collapsed mine shaft.

However, another major ground collapse at the mine early on Saturday morning was “a setback” for the rescue mission, he said.

Vantage Goldfields said rescue operations at the mine were suspended after the second ground collapse occurred at 5am.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the company said all search and rescue teams were safely evacuated as a new geotechnical assessment was needed before the resumption of search and rescue operations could be considered.

“Conditions are extremely unstable underground at Lily Mine following a further collapse of the south wall of the open pit,” Vantage Goldfields CEO, Mike McChesney, said. “I cannot compound this disaster by risking the lives of the rescue teams.”

The company said rescue teams had significantly increased the extraction rate of rocks and debris in the past 24 hours before the new ground collapse.

International specialists brought to Lily Mine had confirmed that the pit area was unstable as ongoing ground movement was detected, it said.

ANA