ANXIETY has gripped the families of the four deceased Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) who were involved in Sunday’s underground tragic accident at South Ore Body (SOB) in Kitwe.
The recovery operation, which yesterday entered day-four, has not produced any success.
MCM head of public relations Cephas Sinyangwe said the mine rescue operation team had continued to search for the bodies of the four miners who are Emmanuel Kyongola, Mushota Nsama, Arnold Mambwe and Abel Munthali but without success.
Mr Sinyangwe who was giving an update on the exercise for retrieval of the bodies said in a statement yesterday that the recovery operation has continued although no body had been found.
“The recovery has continued though nobody has been found yet. The company is keeping the families of the deceased informed on a daily basis and will continue to render them full support during this difficult time,” Mr Sinyangwe said.
He said MCM continues to work closely with the local emergency services and relevant authorities adding that collection of data for the formal investigations into the cause of the accident had since commenced as the recovery process continued.
Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) general secretary Joseph Chewe said the union was grieved over the death of the miners who among them, three were its members.
Mr Chewe said through its department for mine safety, would institute on investigations into the cause of the accident especially that some family members of the deceased miners have questioned safety of the environment where their beloved were working from prior to the tragedy.
On Wednesday, Royford Mambwe, brother to late one of the deceased miners told Mines, Energy and Water Development Deputy Minister Richard Musukwa that his late brother had prior to the accident, complained to the wife that the area they were operating from was not safe.
Meanwhile, acting President Inonge Wina yesterday visited the funeral homes for the four mines to console them.
There is something Mopani is not telling the public. All the mine openings are well documented in survey plans. At the point of the accident you can plot the likely position of the bodies. Hope these guys didn’t end up in the crushers further down.
Also how did they know the miners are dead. It is possible these miners would have been alive but they declare them dead so that they prevent costs.
Our lovely president will help the victimes and bring to book these mine owners. Lungu will save Zambia. Viva Lungu Viva wakwasu
These miners might be arrive and will die of either suffocation or hunger.How sure are they that all the four miners have died. It is just that they don’t want to pay huge amount of money for proper rescue teams who could have saved the lives of the four miners
@pungwa,
Where might the four missing miners arrive?
Iyo chachine niwe PUNGWA, ati “might be arrive”
BembaS and English.
Arrive?
@pungwa
you must be a kaonde or lunda. I see you have a problem with R & L.
I understand it happens. Talk to your parents and find out why.
Thanks
The government is being very insensitive. Clearly the mine’s rescue teams have failed and the GRZ should by now have asked for international help who have well trained sniffer dogs in their rescue teams. The pain that the families of those four missing men are going through is immense and unbearably agonizing.
Ba Jay Jay naba BUGA that was just an error when typing.I thought I typed alive.The problem with you two is that you just know how to make short comments because your English is very very bad such that when you want to comment you have to use a dictionery.I’m not like what you think.
@Pungwa plse…. u are better off not responding….typing error…ALIVE and ARRIVE…????..PAST and PASY…can be typing error because t and y are close on the key board…
Pungwa Please, it’s dictionary and not dictionery! Kikiki
Punwa plse do not respond to zimandola….a and e are far apart on key board…so nothing like typing error….this site highlights when da spelling is wrong or when da word is not recognisable …a red under-line appears….right click the mouse and there you have alternative words….
Kikikikikikiki Pungwa Muchibe
…this is really a painful death……this was not a bomb blast were one may expect an instant demise…chances are that with rock fall…one may just be injured or exit blocked…imagine yourself alive in that situation….the assumption is that all are dead hence the mines taking their time….I know safety of rescuers is vital…but establishing if there is any life behind the rubble is also vital….please lets have press briefings atleast every six hours…probably live on ZNBC..
As usual the public gets fed homilies instead of information.
Why don’t we get a briefing from the Mine Manager with all technical drawings of plans and sections describing at least where it happened while the cause is being investigated. The PR chap is just waffling.
Elsewhere, the National broadcaster would have been in the forefront covering the story. ZNBC are pathetic. What do you expect with people like Maduma heading the organisation.
You are right. Remember the Chilean. Miners who where trapped underground for days. We had daily briefings on TV illustrations using drawings for the rescue plans that were being used and schematic diagrams of possible location of the miners.
have you ever been to Underground mining?. The environment is totally different from the surface and For Mopani Public Relation to certify them dead means he knows what’s at stake and the outcome.
They dropped mu chilongoma together with the expensive boomer, drll rig, they were using. It’s difficult to retrieve anything from there unless you allow the material to drop further down into the crushers bellow and that’s more damage.