Two-year-old Blessing Mazibuko keeps telling his siblings that their mom is coming home soon and will be bringing him juice. His father, Christopher Mazibuko, has not found a way to tell his second-youngest child that his mother will not be coming home, and that her body is trapped in a metal container at the bottom of a sinkhole.Friday marks six months since the container office at Lily Mine outside Barberton was swallowed by the earth on February 5.Blessing's mother, Pretty Nkambule, was in it at the time, along with co-workers Solomon Nyerenda and Yvonne Mnisi.A plan to recover their remains - lying in a precarious position on unstable ground - was developed by international geotechnical experts, but no one is prepared to foot the R130-million bill .Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has halted mining until the container is recovered.A deal signed with an investor, AfroCan, to pump $11-million (R152-million) into the Vantage Goldfields Barberton operation fell apart last month. It was a massive blow for the mine's 900 employees, many of whom have not received their salaries since the incident and are struggling to survive.Vantage Goldfields is in business rescue and negotiations are under way with other potential investors, but insiders said the cost of recovering the container had "spooked" many of them.block_quotes_start If Minister Zwane changed his political stance that the three bodies first need to be recovered before the mining operation will be allowed to commence, then more funders would be interested block_quotes_end"It's tough. The road is thorny, but you have to be strong," Mazibuko said this week."I haven't been able to tell them. But I hope to tell them. Neo and Innocent [his 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter] can see she's not coming back. But Blessing ... All he says is that his mother is coming back and she's bringing him juice."Compounding matters is the fact that the money promised to the families of those trapped in the container, as well as the miners injured in the incident, has not materialised.At a press conference on February 13, Zwane promised that the families of Nkambule, Nyerenda and Mnisi would be paid R200,000 compensation by Vantage Goldfields, and the miners who were underground at the time of the collapse but got out safely would receive R50,000 each.Mazibuko said he was falling behind on his rent and other debts. He said the mine had provided workers with letters to take to debtors, explaining the situation. "But the guy I'm renting from wants his money. It's only R320 per month, but I haven't been able to pay it."The South African Social Security Agency has twice helped the miners with R780 vouchers, but Mazibuko said it was not enough to survive on.He said he had had suicidal thoughts, but always considered his children. The three families sometimes get together to talk, and this helps him.Simon Fakude, who was a section team leader at the time of the collapse, said: "I got my last salary in April. Nothing since then. I don't have any money to buy food for my wife and four-year-old son. We are getting very desperate. Other people have started mining illegally in [Lily Mine]."mini_story_image_hleft1Gideon du Plessis, general secretary of trade union Solidarity, said 482 Lily Mine workers had received partial payment for February and March and no payment from April to July.Nearly 70 employees who were retrenched had yet to receive their severance payment. A further 95 had been seconded to the Vantage Goldfields Barbrook Mine."A large number of employees are now facing sequestration," he said."If Minister Zwane changed his political stance that the three bodies first need to be recovered before the mining operation will be allowed to commence, then more funders would be interested."Rob Devereux, who has been appointed to run the business rescue plan, denied that Vantage Goldfields had ever made an undertaking to pay out the families, but said the company would nonetheless honour the pledge made to them ."That money was included in the business plan, but it's unlikely we will be paying it by the end of this month," he said.Vantage Goldfields CEO Michael McChesney said the mine would take action against AfroCan for breach of contract.Asked to clarify his comments about compensation made on February 13, Zwane said this week that he was "very busy with the campaign" and not speaking to the media.He directed queries to his spokesman, Martin Madlala, who said: "At the press conference he was relaying a message in alliance with the mine ownership. In fact, that promise was made by Mr McChesney, the CEO of the mine."At no point did the minister make a commitment to make a payment."bornmanj@sundaytimes.co.za, laganparsadm@sundaytimes.co.za..