The Congress of South African Trade Unions in Mpumalanga is deeply angered and dismayed by the stubborn and intransigent attitude demonstrated by the Goldfields Lily Mine Management towards the COSATU delegation who visited the scenes of the accident where  more than eighty mine workers were trapped underground on Friday the 05 February 2016.

What deepens COSATU’s anger is that despite the appeal by the delegation that they were joining the Minister of Mineral and Energy’s delegation which was already inside the mine, the employer blatantly refused and told the delegation that the only union allowed to enter the mine is their union AMCU.  This sheer arrogance against COSATU by the employers vindicates COSATU and confirms our long held view that AMCU is in bed with the Capitalist of this country and that AMCU leaders are embedded in the pockets of the employers.

Despite the attempts by the capitalists to weaken and destroy COSATU the federation remains firm and unshaken in its determination to defend the rights of  all vulnerable workers in the farms, mines, retail, textile, security who through their sweat and toil are exploited and robbed by unscrupulous employers in the quest for profit maximization.


Mine workers are amongst the millions of workers across the globe that have not yet experienced fundamental change in their lives, mine workers still live side by side with poverty, inequalities and deprivation.

COSATU joins the millions of people across the globe to wish the rescue team success in rescuing the three workers who are still trapped underground at the Goldfield Lily Mine near Barberton in the Mpumalanga Province.

Issued by COSATU