Opinion: Lily Mine three years later

Pretty Nkumbule's children. Image:Trevor Makhanani Hlungwani

I remember seeing the visuals of the sinkhole at Lily Mine like it were yesterday, an image most would live never to forget.
 It has been exactly 3 years since the tragic accident that claimed the lives of three miners at the mine.
Yvone Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyarende were trapped underground in a metal structure during the massive ground collapse. Their families members are yet to get an opportunity to bury their loved ones.

The images of families members camping outside the  site hoping for news on loved ones is one yet to fade. I often ask myself questions i am not certain i want answers to, did they die the minute the structure landed? Who died first. At that time hope is all they had but eventually lost that hope.
Three years later I, like their families will ever get any of the answers to the questions we are burning for answers.
I followed all the failed operations on the news in 2016, witnessed the challenged faced by the geologists, but somehow feel like something could have been done, even though i know it was just hard. How do the family members move on, how do you move on from something so tragic, no compensation is enough to fill or erase the pain.

The new owners of the mine have come out to say that operations to retrieve the remains of the three miners will resume soon. I don't want to get my hopes high, but at the same time continue to wait with bated breath for the outcome of the operation.