Please check your email and enter your one time pin below:   Open in Gmail Christopher Rutledge is executive director of the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) and Women Affected by Mining United in Action (Wamua) Advice Office We no longer live in a Cold War world where ideological lines are clearly drawn — where one could point and say “This is left” or “That is right” and be sure the values followed accordingly The binaries that once governed our thinking — democracy vs dictatorship, socialism vs capitalism, West vs East — have collapsed under the weight of global interconnectedness and the constant collision of values in our digital and political spaces.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads What we once understood as fixed moral compasses — human rights twisted and sometimes broken in the most extreme contradictions trying to anchor ourselves while the coordinates that once defined our ethical landscape now spin unpredictably A profound example of this ethical turbulence is the ongoing genocide in Palestine dignity and non-discrimination are pitted against a militarised state backed by a coalition of global powers whose rhetoric and actions expose a deeply entrenched hierarchy of whose humanity is worth defending distracted and divided by propaganda and geopolitical interest has stepped forward on the international stage to call out Israel’s actions at the International Court of Justice a necessary act rooted in our historical struggle against apartheid But just beneath this act of international solidarity lies a disturbing domestic contradiction that tears at the very fabric of our nation’s ethical foundation While South Africa condemns the genocide in Palestine, it has orchestrated its own mass killing in the Buffelsfontein mine at Stilfontein of at least 87 poor working-class men — many of them migrants — starved to death in the name of “cleaning up crime” and enforcing immigration laws couched in xenophobic tropes of illegality and criminality carry the stench of the same logic used by fascist regimes to justify genocide And yet they are perpetrated by a state that claims to stand for justice This contradiction forces us into a painful confrontation with ourselves The values we champion in one context fall apart when we fail to apply them with the same vigour at home The result is cognitive dissonance — the same dissonance that feeds the binary moralism we claim to reject in others We oppose the Israeli state’s dehumanisation of Palestinians yet fall silent or confused when our state dehumanises the poor In a hyper-connected world shaped by artificial intelligence just like any ship at sea or spacecraft in orbit we still need an anchor — a North Star — to navigate by This does not mean returning to rigid binaries it demands a constant reassessment of where we are Our challenge is not just to move left or right but to constantly recalibrate our journey according to values we hold dear must be applied universally and without exception That means having the moral clarity to both support the South African state when it challenges genocidal violence abroad and to fiercely condemn it when it perpetrates the same violence at home It requires a deep reckoning with the illusions we hold about ourselves and the movements we align with we risk becoming the very thing we fight against We risk allowing the ontology of our liberation struggle perverted and turned into a tool of oppression If we are to build a future rooted in justice, we must abandon the comforting simplicity of binary thinking. We must embrace the uncomfortable truth that sometimes, the enemy is not only out there but also within our ranks. Only then can we truly move, not just forward, but toward something better.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads It is incumbent on all of us — those who are ideological prisoners those economically dependent on the state and the status quo and those whose role is to hold the state accountable — to confront their complicity in perpetuating the very injustices we claim to oppose The institutions that should be the moral compass of our democracy — the media the political opposition — are so deeply ensconced in their own economic privilege that they no longer understand the meaning or extent of poverty they are shielded from the realities of hunger realities borne by the same people they claim to represent we must first confront the illusions that cloud our present unflinching commitment to truth — even when it indicts the very movements parties or institutions we once believed in Because only then can we truly begin the journey forward The truth is that Israel attacked and continues to attack the Gaza strip attacked and perpetrated some pretty ugly atrocities on Israel but still some living citizens of Israel and a few other countries Yes atrocities happen all over the world every day The author talks about a commitment to truth well as terrible as the Israel actions in Gaza are why no mention of the killing of over a 1000 Israelites and others on that 7 October attack that started it all Also no mention of the alllegations of Iran bribing the corrupt bankrupt ANC to take the case to the ICJ ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Mine rescue workers host up a cage that was used to rescue trapped miners at an abandoned gold mine where miners were rescued from below ground The Acting Provincial Commissioner of North West speaks to journalists outside an abandoned gold mine Forensic service workers carry remains in blue body bags during a rescue operation to rescue miners from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein A miner is transported on a stretcher by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein Families of miners and activist protest as South Africa’s Police minister Senzo Mchunu visit an abandoned gold mine where miners are rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein Forensic service workers carry bodies in blue body bags during a rescue operation to rescue miners from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein Rescuers work to retrieve miners from ground in an abandoned gold mine for months Illegal miners are escorted by police officers after being rescued from an abandoned gold mine for months Illegal miners escorted by police officers after being rescued from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein South Africa’s Police minister Senzo Mchunu attempts talking to family members and activists after visiting an abandoned gold mine where miners are rescued from below ground Rescuer workers assist an illegal miner who has been trapped deep in an abandoned gold mine for months Miners are escorted by police officers after being rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine for months A miner is assisted by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein Forensic service vehicles arrive at the site where a rescue operation continues for miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein The tactic was apparently meant to force them out but instead caused dozens to die of starvation or dehydration according to groups representing the miners South African authorities have for years struggled to stop groups of miners from going into some of the gold-rich country’s 6,000 abandoned or closed mines to search for leftover deposits South Africa lost more than $3 billion in gold to the illicit trade last year Police forces launched an operation — dubbed “Close the Hole” — in late 2023 to clamp down on illegal mining by surrounding several mines and cutting off supplies that were being sent down by other members of the groups on the surface so the miners would come out on their own and be arrested became a police target in August but it was only in November that the miners’ situation drew the attention of rights groups Activists warned that hundreds of miners were trapped up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground and desperately needed food A Cabinet minister laughed when she was asked if the authorities would send supplies “We are not sending help to criminals,” Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said adding that “criminals are not to be helped Trade unions and rights groups say authorities used starvation as a weapon at Buffelsfontein A group representing the miners said that not only did police cut off food for a time they and the mine owners also dismantled a rope and pulley system that was used to get into the mine and send down supplies Police have denied any responsibility for the deaths and insisted the miners were not trapped but were able to escape through several shafts in the mine but others stayed put out of fear they would be arrested But rights groups say hundreds of miners were trapped inside the mine too far away from the shafts they could leave through or too weak to make the dangerous climb out Activists are saying authorities are also to blame for the long delay in launching a rescue operation which only started on Monday after a court ordered the government to rescue the miners known as “zama zamas” — “hustlers” or “chancers” in the Zulu language — are usually armed and part of criminal syndicates They are often undocumented foreign nationals and authorities said that the vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and have defended their hard-line approach South Africa’s second biggest political party has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to order an inquiry into what happened at the Buffelsfontein mine The investigation should also determine whether police “are prepared to use vengeance and punishment as acceptable ways of fighting illegal mining,” the Democratic Alliance party said Others have questioned if the extraordinarily harsh action by authorities was because most of the miners at Buffelsfontein were not South Africans Ramaphosa has not commented on the disaster AVBOB celebrates a milestone by rewarding its members on a large scale PRETORIA - Police say they've already spent over R30 million in the Stilfontein operation That's according to North West police commissioner He briefed a joint sitting of Parliament's portfolio committees of police and minerals and Petroleum resources on illegal mining earlier.  READ: Police intensify efforts to deal with illegal mining more than 1,500 illegal miners surfaced from the abandoned shafts in Stilfontein and over ninety bodies were also retrieved.   Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe estimates that this criminal activity cost the South African economy R60 billion in 2024.   Police Minister Senzo Mchunu says investigations continue into the possible involvement of law enforcement in the escape of the illegal miner known as Tiger READ: Illegal mining | Cops nabbed for letting ‘Tiger’ escape The alleged Zama Zama kingpin is believed to have fled an abandoned mineshaft in Stilfontein during rescue operations earlier this year Four police officers accused of aiding his escape have appeared in court two times ───   KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 11:35 Fri Illegal mining activities at Stilfontein in the North West have escalated into a serious cross-border issue as mining operations spill over into the Free State This has created a major headache for police and law enforcement agencies working to curb the spread of illegal mining activities in both provinces the Vala Umgodu Tactical Joint Operational Centre’s (TACJOC) Free State leader calling Stilfontein a “major challenge” as it serves as a hub for illegal miners Ndzotyana said the proximity of Stilfontein to the Kopanang mine in Welkom made it particularly difficult to control Illegal miners use the notorious Stilfontein shaft to gain entry and then walk underground for approximately a week to reach the mines in Welkom “I’m sure you’ve seen on TV how they enter the mines and throw food they will dig a hole to open up that wall and find a way to the Free State it’s not a straight walk; you will find them on level 45 they walk more until they get to us in the Free State,” Ndzotyana explained The police have developed strategies to counter the threat including deploying specialised combat teams and explosives units some of whom work underground to tackle the miners in real-time Stilfontein is considered the “mother” of illegal mining as most of these activities originate there we have Beatrix mine where they also do the same thing but they find a way to get inside so they can gain entrance,” she added Zama zamas sometimes make their way to operational mines where their presence is discovered when minerals are missing or tunnels are disturbed Certain mines near North West are particularly vigilant: they immediately investigate any sudden drop in mineral output or unusual activity “Some mines that are close to North West would tell you if you drop from 9 to 7 tons That is when they would send their people inside to look,” she said Despite the resources being dedicated to combat illegal mining especially as some mine employees allegedly assist zama zamas by helping them enter or exit the mines after they have extracted minerals Sometimes employees at mines like Beatrix help zama zamas to enter and help them leave after they’ve dug up minerals,” she remarked illegal miners have been known to swallow minerals in an attempt to smuggle them out undetected These people are scanned upon arrest to check if they have ingested any minerals The Stilfontein mine recently made headlines after efforts were made to get illegal miners out of the underground It was revealed that over R30 million was spent on the Vala Umgodi operation to remove illegal miners from Stilfontein OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi cg North West scholar transport operators will finally receive payments Vrystaatse ouerpaar in hof ná kinders doodbrand Besoekers sprakeloos oor skouspelagtige Augrabies UV ontken aantygings oor buitelandse werknemers Ondersoek duur voort ná skietery op Lichtenburg Oekraïne vra Suid-Afrika om ontvoerde kinders te help terugbring Wyle pous Franciskus het begrafnisrituele vooraf vereenvoudig Mianmar-aardbewing: Hulp stroom in ná meer as 1 700 sterftes Suid-Afrikaners wen gesogte blommeskou-trofee in China Home | South Africa An undetermined number of illegal miners, who are believed to have gone underground before the intensification of the Vala Umgodi Operations Affected families in Khuma near Stilfontein in North West say while the community volunteers and the state-led mine rescue initiatives resulted in the retrieval of 278 illegal miners and 87 bodies many bodies are reportedly still scattered in Shaft 10 Community leader Johannes Qankase elaborates “From the information that we got from the volunteers that were sent underground when the rescue people came it was that there are still bodies underground more especially in the other shaft whereby some of them were trying to resurface through the gates but some of them lost their grip in numbers.” As much as we are working with the community as community leaders there are some names that are brought to us that there are some people that are not on the list We got the list from police for your information; all the people who have resurfaced.” Qankase says the process of identifying the deceased has made matters more complicated “They said no they will not be allowed to go individually They must make an appointment in a group so that they can go and identify But now the situation we find ourselves in some of the community members and the families are afraid They have told us they are afraid to go and identify But at the end of the day if ever some they want to go and identify their loved ones must they wait for other people to come so that they go in a group whose brother Ayanda Tom remains unaccounted for since going underground in July 2024 through the notorious shaft 11 in Stilfontein says she is still holding on to hope that her family will see him again “Somebody said that he saw my brother two weeks back He told them ‘I’m going to try to retrieve myself… because I can’t die underground’ That’s the last time that they saw him Now I think I will mark it three weeks… even now I’m not ok but I have this hope that my brother is still alive because in shaft 10 the people they retrieved they never gave us names,” says Tom Mark Heywood is a social justice activist and former Editor of Maverick Citizen He is the former Executive Director and founder of SECTION27 and has been a human rights activist most of his life He has also advised Change Starts Now and Rise Mzansi on issues of social justice The deliberate starving to death of at least 78 men at the bottom of the disused Buffelsfontein mine is a human tragedy on a scale akin to Marikana the Usindiso building fire and the ANC government’s early response to deny people with Aids access to lifesaving treatment during the early 2000s The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) is right to use the word “massacre” Sadly there’s no sign of penitence or regret by those who sanctioned starving the miners out. Neither is there any suggestion that the deaths should be mourned by our nation.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads the day when most of the dead and nearly dead bodies of the starved miners began to be brought up from the bottom of shaft 11 the sight of Mineral and Energy Resources Minister arriving in a convoy of blue-light black sedans said it all Mantashe was obviously oblivious to the incongruity of his grand entrance The fact that he was once a mineworker himself and is a leader of a communist party is evidence of how low once principled (presumably) people can go Most of the dead of Stilfontein were men who came from Mozambique economic refugees from a country where the unemployment rate is 25% with only 20% of employment being waged labour The remaining 80% of workers are in informal employment between 2014/15 and 2019/20 the national poverty rate surged from 48.4% to 62.8% and the number of poor from 13.1 to 18.9 million Contributing to this is an epidemic of corruption by the ruling party as bodies were still being lifted from the mine President Cyril Ramaphosa spent the day in Maputo at the inauguration of Daniel Chapo another corrupt Frelimo president and government after yet another stolen election But still, one wonders whether even if the majority of the miners had been poor South Africans it would have made any difference, because as Pierre de Vos has explained They knew from August 2024 (see this Timeline of the Stilfontein saga) that lives were at risk Yet a misinformation campaign combined with stigmatising the miners as zama zamas or undocumented migrants was enough to rob them of humanity Read more: You Know, Because We Told You much as our politicians deserve opprobrium to an extent South Africans are all complicit in this shameful moment in our constitutional democracy Why, I wondered, were these human beings not deserving of the same attention that gripped the world when 12 boys were trapped in a tunnel in Thailand in 2021 Read more: Notes on the underground — where the most desperate and impoverished scavenge for illicit gold  Our selective amnesia forgets that adult unemployment stands at 32%; the steep rise in the price of food; the fact that 31 years after the advent of democracy there is still no system of social security for the ordinary unemployed Well researched calls for a universal Basic Income Grant have been repeatedly batted away. Instead the indigent are expected to survive on the R370 per month Social Relief of Distress grant, and even this is given grudgingly. Indeed, on Thursday last week the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria, in a groundbreaking judgment said that the government had given it: “no explanation why both the SRD grant and the means threshold are not linked to measures such as the food poverty line although the purpose of the SRD grant is to alleviate hunger and poverty in society” and the string of other state failures to the poor betray a deeper problem: a total loss of empathy for the lives of the poor and most vulnerable — be they miners The ease with which society and the media is willing to move on from these disasters without justice or truth ends up implicating us all in what Wits Professor Achille Mbembe in his book Brutalism calls an era of “increasingly unprecedented violence against (poor) people a “planetary social war” against the black and brown poor migrants and the economically dispossessed Fortunately not everyone pawned their compassion for an Xmas holiday. Over December a small number of civil society organisations refused to stay silent and succumb to a loss of humanity. advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads just before Xmas Mine-Affected Communities United in Africa (Macua) the General and Industrial Workers Union of SA (Giwusa) and others issued a joint statement “calling on faith-based leaders and organisations to show spiritual solidarity with the miners trapped underground in Stilfontein” we cannot celebrate while these miners remain in darkness Over the holiday period this handful of activists remained on duty, trying to provide food, preparing court papers, doing all that they could to keep the alarm bells ringing. It was their efforts that led to the 10 January 2025 order by the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria that the miners be rescued the government stooped so low as to request personal cost orders against five of the lawyers involved in the case Read more: Stilfontein body count mounts as 51 corpses hauled from mine, 106 rescued Just as the 196o Sharpeville massacre and the killings on 16 June 1976 were a turning point in the Struggle against apartheid the massacre of  Stilfontein should be a turning point for democratic South Africa South Africans should stand up and demand “No more preventable disasters” Like many others I’ve given up on most of our politicians This time there’s not even much hand wringing So the danger exists that once again there will be no justice for the men who died at Stilfontein there’ll be another drawn out Commission of Inquiry that makes money for lawyers so should civil society and faith-based organisations A modicum of justice would lie in reparations to families and those who survived Even better would be a real commitment to address the degrading poverty that bedevils so many millions But on a deeper level the reparations must also come from within ourselves We must understand our complicity in a system that feeds inequality practice compassion and solidarity and find a way to value the human being in everyone We dont want M23 rebel type people taking over South African mines Author should not allow South African to become a banana republic At least Trump is taking no-nonesense approach to Illegal migrants Thanks Mark for bringing humanity back into the discourse are becoming more callous and bigoted by the day Somehow we have to stop the rot and allow ourselves to be the empathetic Just more “unbiased” woke reporting Since when is voluntary suicide a massacre destroyed whatever other merits there may be to this piece Since the woke DM with their “unbiased” reporting deemed it so The lack of empathy and compassion for our fellow human beings reflected in some of the comments here is unconscionable If we seek a better world where all are treated with dignity and respect How many illegal immigrants are you housing There can never be an excuse for illegally entering another country and engaging in greedy illegal conduct whilst there Yet an appeal is made to the effect that the police should have done nothing and allowed such criminality to continue in the name of “humanity” I don’t believe the vocal racial trumpers and conspiracy nutjobs who comment on DM articles represent South Africans Human Rights must remain the basis of our social compact does their Human Rights include their decision to die rather than come out and be arrested for crimes The media and comments from government ministers (smoke them out) gives licence to this amoral cruelty I don’t support illegality or zama zamas but cruelty is a cancer and it spreads The comments that have been made throughout this tragic event This is starting to align itself with the attitudes of the Third Reich where one race is superior and others are vilified and treated as vermin Where has race ever been the basis of any of the comments you are generalizing about Stilfontein mine insert a 20m deep pug of cement over the disused mine shaft Zama-Zama’s come along a few months later and blast the cement away and start illegal mining This is reported to the police and to the Dept The very day the tragedy unfolded at Stilfontein with bodies being extracted I personally saw Gwede Mantashe and his entourage at Benguela Cove wine estate at Hermanus quaffing champagne and expensive food Until the ANC voters realise that he doesn’t give a jit Here in Benoni we have witnessed that these illegal miners have not hesitated to engage in an armed fire fight with the police on numerous occasions File: This aerial view shows an open mine shaft where artisanal miners get access to the mine in Stilfontein JOHANNESBURG - The South African Human Rights Commission has instituted an inquiry into illegal mining.  This after the commission received a complaint over the Stilfontein illegal mining operations READ: SA economy lost R60 billion in 2024 to illegal mining more than 1,000 illegal miners surfaced from the abandoned shafts in Stilfontein and 87 bodies were also retrieved.   The commission of inquiry will sit in May this year where role-players will make oral presentations Sorry there was an error loading the audio Police Minister Senzo Mchunu told Parliament on Tuesday that the Stilfontein mine tragedy in which 93 illegal miners died and nearly 2,000 were arrested was a consequence of South Africa’s insecure borders Calling illegal immigration a “huge problem”, the minister said: “The overall fundamental issue is border management”. He was addressing a joint meeting of Parliament’s portfolio committees on minerals and petroleum resources, and police.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Police top brass and officials from the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources briefed the committees on illegal mining and derelict and ownerless mines said a total of 944 police officers took part in the operation at Stilfontein from August 2024 up till March 2025 at a cost of R23-million for deployments and R9.8-million for overtime payments Read more: Stilfontein mine rescue ends with 78 dead, 246 rescued and ringleaders in custody  Asaneng said the majority of the illegal miners were undocumented migrants the people that came to the surface were Mozambicans 197; and one Congolese and one Malawian,” he said — a total of 1,826 illegal mining which is a criminal offence for anybody to conduct mining you need a licence or a permit “They must be permitted and these people were not permitted to be operating there, hence the police were leading the operation. They were also charged by Home Affairs for being in the country illegally, including for possession of gold-bearing material and unlawful possession of explosives that they used underground.”advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Asaneng told the committees that a “total of 93 corpses were retrieved” He said that 640kg of gold-bearing material worth about R46-million and 6.2kg of refined gold worth R6-million was confiscated in addition to nearly half a million rands in cash “All these dockets have since appeared before court” and 35 had been finalised Police employed a “surrender or starve” strategy to force miners to surface in Stilfontein that aimed to “smoke them out” according to Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni Daily Maverick reported last month that according to the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) at least 20 of the miners died of starvation and dehydration The organisation appointed an independent pathologist to carry out autopsies on the dead miners Read more: Stilfontein massacre a stark reminder of South Africa’s ongoing struggle with human rights violations While the mine rescue operation has ended, the shaft is still being guarded by the police because of other crimes in the area.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads At the briefing on Tuesday, Mchunu sought to underscore the points made by the SAPS top brass, saying, “I would imagine that among issues that we have to deal with is border management.” Referring to the illegal miners who had entered South Africa without documentation, he emphasised, “That alone is a huge problem and a huge challenge. It could have gone to mining and then we learn through illegal mining that there is this problem but it could have gone elsewhere, in another sector, and reflected these same numbers. “Because it is clear it is not just a reflection of what’s happening in illegal mining, it’s in the other sectors as well. It could be there like this and it could be worse. The overall fundamental issue is border management.” He urged the departments and Parliament to throw their weight behind security cluster efforts to address this “fundamental issue”, saying, “This is what will be the consequence if we continue with borders that are leaking.” DM Unfortunately everything is “a huge problem” when we have a government which is both useless and stealing from our people. The South African government spent just over R30 million retrieving suspects involved in illegal mining at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein which was launched in August last year to combat illegal mining across the country The Stilfontein mine became a focal point as the government was compelled to intervene and rescue illegal miners who remained underground Although the rescue mission concluded earlier this year Operation Vala Umgodi is set to continue in May Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Petroleum Resources and Police in a joint meeting on Tuesday National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola stressed that illegal mining remains a significant issue across several provinces Masemola highlighted that most individuals involved in illegal mining are foreign nationals from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region Acting North West Police Commissioner Patrick Asaneng provided details on the extensive law enforcement efforts at Stilfontein He revealed that the operation involved 944 police officers with R23 million allocated for their deployment and an additional R9.8 million spent on overtime “There were instances on many occasions where members had to work more than their prescribed hours of duty to be able to conduct this operation,” Asaneng told MPs on Tuesday authorities arrested 1 826 illegal miners who had surfaced from the abandoned mine The arrested individuals included 1 128 Mozambicans The identified individuals were all foreign nationals there were allegations that there are more than 300 bodies underground which could not be brought to the surface bringing the total to 93,” the provincial police commissioner added Asaneng further indicated that police had confiscated gold and gold-bearing material worth R52.49 million Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe revealed that South Africa has 6 100 derelict and ownerless mines which serve as hotspots for illegal mining and related crimes In the North West province alone, there are approximately 1 041 such mines he clarified that the Stilfontein mine is not among them Mantashe pointed out that more than 70% of the mine is owned by Chinese stakeholders and we didn’t struggle to find them because they are not available We started to find them because they were running away it’s not an ownerless and derelict mine; it is a mine operated by a company,” Mantashe said He also confirmed that his department will engage with the Minerals Council South Africa to address illegal mining Police Minister Senzo Mchunu assured Parliament that investigations are ongoing to identify those who financially benefit from illegal mining We need to get to the bottom of it all,” Mchunu said Law enforcement are also probing the potential involvement of law enforcement officials in the escape of illegal mining kingpin James “Tiger” Tsoaeli during the rescue mission They were released on R1 000 bail, with their case scheduled to resume on 29 May Commenting on their alleged role in the escape New Zimbabwe.com Tweets by NewZimbabweCom NewZimbabwe.com – The Zimbabwe News You Trust is Zimbabwe’s leading online newspaper and published by New Zimbabwe Media Ltd The platform brings you the latest breaking News Diaspora and gives you everything you’ve come to expect and love Our Forums are vibrant and gives everyone a chance to be heard tablet smart phone or on our App its quick easy and free access all the news you love NewZimbabwe.com is updated continually with the latest news to help you feed your addiction with stories & photos from Zimbabwe and many more ───   KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 14:39 Fri North West police say 35 DNA samples have been taken so far following their call for families to come forward and identify the bodies retrieved from Shaft 11 at the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein A total of 78 bodies were recovered during a comprehensive four-day rescue operation from Monday 246 survivors – many in a severely emaciated and disoriented state – were brought to the surface The identification process continues with efforts dating back to February 4 said North West police spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone and further updates are expected as DNA samples continue to be analysed Authorities are collecting DNA samples from individuals who suspect that the bodies recovered in the Stilfontein mine could be their missing family members they are sent to forensic laboratories for analysis to confirm identities.  Some of the 78 bodies were found to be in an advanced state of decomposition “We are standing at 35 at the moment,” Mokgwabone said “We started with the identification process on the 4th of February We’ll take it day by day to see what will unfold after today’s process.” Seven of the 78 had prior arrests on record though their families have not yet been located Police have urged anyone who suspects that their missing family members may have been involved in illegal mining activities Families wishing to identify their loved ones may visit the Stilfontein site on Tuesdays Mokgwabone said before DNA samples are taken families must bring identification documents for interview purposes with the police investigation team “We urge people who suspect that their next of kin or family members may have disappeared or worked as zama zamas around Stilfontein to come forward they must bring along their identification documents they will be interviewed by our investigation team,” he added A total of 93 bodies of zama zamas are in the state mortuary This includes the nine bodies initially retrieved using a pulley system the 78 bodies recovered in the rescue operation and those who died in hospitals following the operation The last major arrest of illegal miners occurred the previous week when seven individuals were apprehended at the Margret Shaft adding police were disappointed over the small number of people who have come forward for the identification process so far but they remain hopeful that more will come forward and within the borders of South Africa have come forward for identification processes ───   KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 15:15 Wed Since the launch of Operation Vala Umgodi in Stilfontein police have spent more than R30 million to combat illegal mining in North West This was revealed during a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Police session on Tuesday (18/3) where acting Provincial Police Commissioner Patrick Asaneng detailed ongoing efforts to tackle the crisis National Police Commissioner Fanie Masemola previously confirmed the operation was being funded through the Criminal Asset Recovery Account R23 million has been allocated for police deployments while an additional R9.8 million was spent on overtime costs Officers frequently work beyond their regular hours due to the scale of the crisis “We had instances where police had to work more than the prescribed hours of duty,” Asaneng said highlighting the intensity of the operation It was also revealed that gold-bearing material worth R46 million was confiscated during several months of operations in Stilfontein More than a thousand zama-zamas have been arrested and more than 90 bodies recovered from underground shafts Many of those arrested and recovered were illegal migrants Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe voiced concerns about foreign nationals’ involvement in illegal mining stating: “Foreign nationals are raping the economy through illegal mining dealings.” the search continues for Neo “Tiger” Tsoaledi believed to be a key figure in Stilfontein’s illegal mining network Tsoaledi disappeared while in police custody Mineral Resources Portfolio Chairperson Mika Mahlaule expressed scepticism over whether Tsoaledi is the true kingpin “Kingpins don’t do that; they live lavish lifestyles elsewhere Those in the country are being pursued by police He explained kingpins typically operate through informants managing activities from underground rather than participating directly Mahlaule also provided an update on law enforcement’s progress against illegal mining “At least eight kingpins have been arrested nationwide since 2019 and law enforcement agencies have repossessed assets acquired through illegal mining.” Shaft 10 continues to be cleared for rehabilitation North West acting provincial police commissioner Major General Patrick Asaneng announced on Thursday that the Buffelsfontein mine rescue mission had ended as no more bodies or people could be detected in the disused shaft This comes after the volunteers who were instrumental in retrieving the bodies of miners who died underground and rescuing those who were still alive reported on Wednesday that there were no longer any miners in the shaft.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads After sending state-of-the-art cameras down into the shaft to sweep the area on Thursday morning Mine Rescue Services CEO Mannas Fourie confirmed that no miners remained underground the number of bodies retrieved since the operation began on Monday was 78 The Stilfontein saga began in August last year when the police descended on the mine cutting off the illegal miners’ supply of food and water and arresting those who surfaced nearly 2,000 zama zamas have been arrested and a total of 87 bodies were recovered from the mine Nine of the illegal miners who were arrested are in hospital receiving medical care under police guard Read in Daily Maverick: Stilfontein must not be another Marikana, President Ramaphosa Speaking on radio station 702, national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said several ringleaders who controlled the operation underground were arrested alongside the miners who are currently in police custody.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Mathe added that the miners who were rescued during the operation gave statements to the police shedding light on the conditions under which they were kept at the hands of the ringleaders in the disused mine shaft “We are investigating allegations of assault and torture where they are alleging that these ringleaders were torturing them They also make allegations that the tonnes and tonnes of food that were sent down were kept and hoarded by these ringleaders,” she said Mathe said some of the miners told police that they were lured to the shaft with the promise of gainful employment and were not aware that they would have to go 3km into the shaft and mine She said police were still trying to track down the kingpins who remained above ground and called the shots in the illegal mining operation stating that the investigation was ongoing Mathe told 702 that Operation Vala Umgodi (“Close the Hole”) would continue and police would remain at the unsealed shaft “We do not want a situation where we find ourselves at this stage [again],” said Mathe The Democratic Alliance (DA) and Good party have called for an inquest into the Stilfontein mine tragedy “It is astonishing that the situation was allowed to drag on for months and was only ‘resolved’ because our government was taken to court and forced to prioritise life The bodies of illegal miners which have been brought to the surface affirm the dire situation below ground which is supported by the physical state of the zama zamas who have surfaced and been arrested,” said Herron He added that the vast majority of the miners who were trapped in the shaft were victims of socioeconomic issues such as unemployment and the lack of economic opportunities “While a large proportion of the miners are foreign the local community is made up of many foreign and local former miners who live without livelihoods due to the closing down of mines The state has also committed to ensuring adequate livelihoods where possible in communities dependent on income from closed mining operations the state has argued that Buffelsfontein gold mine was not closed and in a state of disrepair but rather that the owners still maintained a valid operating licence and had merely paused operations,” he said Herron called for an inquiry to establish clarity on this grey area of legislation and on Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to ensure that SAPS investigations focused on the illegal mining kingpins “who abuse the desperation of others for illicit financial gains and put our communities at risk”.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads On Wednesday, DA MP James Lorimer, the party’s spokesperson on mineral and petroleum resources, called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to immediately establish an inquest “so that those who have been derelict in their duty can be sanctioned and so that the same situation does not happen again.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads “Illegal miners and their associated bosses and handlers have damaged South Africa’s economy and made life hell for tens of thousands of our people but many low-level illegal miners are simply trying to scratch out a living and only performing an activity that is not even a crime under current law “There may be blame accruing to both the SAPS and the Department of Mineral and Energy Resources and because of this they would not be the appropriate authorities to investigate this debacle,” said Lorimer Going to interesting to see who those arrested ringleaders actually are – foreigners as per Mantashe or locals Said ring leaders are merely the platoon leaders on a slightly higher pay scale than the so called illegal miners No-one can buy food with a piece of gold-ore They are all subject to the laundromat process that follows Indeed they are not at the top of the chain but they are still culpable if they have been threatening the miners we can’t prosecute our way out of corruption Probably bribing customs and others to turn a blind eye to smuggling and money laundering It all starts with SA’s porous borders and lack of immigration law enforcement and simply cannot afford to have millions streaming across our borders A large-scale army deployment on the border and mass deportations are required Primary function of a border post incidentally is revenue collection through customs & excise on trade it’s biggest tenant is SARS not Home Affairs much less SAPS or SANDF Our busiest post is Beitbridge whose physical barrier (fence) is 40 km long the border is defined by the Limpopo river & terrain (mountains This fenced part of the “border” is what one can sanely claim to be porous since it’s a real barrier than be “protected” Rest of this imaginary”border”with Zim (traverses thick bush & tribal lands populated by kith & kin on either side going back centuries) whose loyalties to each other you will never understand!For them assisting kinfolk to cross a river is a matter of strong sentiment akin to obligation & honour No patrolling army accountable to law can prevail against such sentiments The longest uninterrupted stretch on the Mozambican side is over 400km The world’s sole superpower can’t stem the tide from South America through mexico Police Departments etc – all inadequate….And why Becoz you can’t fight the ingenuity of human nature The will to survive & lust for a better life is hard wired and a heck of a force!!! You can waste time + finite funds fighting it or you can harness it These men mine gold which we desperately need to boost our reserves & protect the value of currency One would have hoped the Security personnel would have operated as efficiently when the Guptas fled the country during the May insurrection in KZN and the ongoing thieving still rife amongst the politically connected It just so happens that they operated the way we have gotten accustomed to as the ring-leader reportedly escaped somewhere between the shaft and the holding cells but how close are they to arresting the the money men and ultimately the bosses whose pockets received most of the cash time to pay attention to closing our borders who created it and who is buying and where is it going find this out and you can curb the illegal mining Whoever is buying it is enabling these miners The citizenship of the Zama zamas is instructive so credit to SA for a vaguely functioning welfare system but a huge statement on many of the countries to our north the people down the mines just wanted to work and feed their families yet we cannot allow illegals to come and claim what our own people need desperately Illegal miners who were rescued from the depths of Shaft 10 at the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein in the North West say that conditions have become so desperate that those still underground have resorted to consuming human flesh The accounts are contained in court papers submitted to the Constitutional Court in which the miners allege that conditions have become extremely desperate underground since the start of police operation Vala Umgodi. advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads police have limited the flow of food and other goods to groups of miners who allegedly entered abandoned mine shafts of the Buffelsfontein Mining Group Police officers have been stationed above ground night and day resulting in those underground being cut off from their usual food supplies Police contend that the miners are conducting illegal work and know how to emerge from the blocked shafts several community and rights groups have accused the police operation of being inhumane In the most recent case brought by the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) the NGO claims that the police operation has blocked food supplies at least nine bodies have been retrieved from the Stilfontein shafts and 34 miners rescued through a makeshift pulley operation led by people from the nearby Khuma village Read more: Crisis committee claims police are deliberately misleading the public on Stilfontein’s illegal miners “The right to access to food and the right to life are of paramount importance and need to be preserved by organs of state as the applicant’s and community members’ means to feed and rescue the miners have run out if this honourable court does not intervene the death toll will only increase,” Mnguni says in court papers Macua submitted affidavits of three miners – Clement Moeletsi While Moeletsi’s affidavit paints a detailed picture of the situation underground in the months since the beginning of Operation Vala Umgodi the other two affidavits alleged that miners have resorted to eating human flesh to survive deposed a short affidavit for the application “I confirm that I was trapped underground at shafts 10 and 11 of the Buffelfontein Gold Mine. I was rescued on 25 December 2024 and confirm that prior to my rescue, some miners had resorted to consuming human flesh from other deceased miners in a desperate attempt to stay alive,” the affidavit says. advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Ntsokolo’s affidavit is largely similar to Mashiane’s except that he escaped using ligater which are metal rods within the mine that lead to the surface He too confirms that some miners are consuming human flesh to stay alive Moeletsi, who did not witness human flesh consumption directly, speaks of other conditions underground. He explains that he entered the mine on 24 July 2024, “driven by financial hardship and the overwhelming need to provide for my family”.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads leaving me without the means to support my household The pressure of not being able to provide food of basic necessities for my child and loved ones became unbearable leaving me with no choice but to take this desperate step in the hope of alleviating our dire situation.” Moeletsi says during the month before Operation Vala Umgodi started to affect the miners he noted that conditions underground were difficult “The environment was suffocating and devoid of natural light Moeletsi says the situation underground deteriorated “People began eating cockroaches and mixing toothpaste with salt to create makeshift meals extreme measures born out of sheer deprivation The lack of food and safe drinking water left us with no viable means of nourishment the absence of even basic sustenance was absolute and survival became a daily battle against starvation.” Moeletsi says he went without food and safe drinking water for nearly six weeks, leading him to become “physically and mentally drained”.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads abdominal pain and what I suspect were symptoms of stomach ulcers Moeletsi tells the court that he saw many miners “wasting away” underground and argues that the deaths were preventable “As days turned to weeks without food, their movements became sluggish, as if every step was an unbearable effort. The fat that once cushioned their frames disappeared, leaving bones painfully visible beneath thinning skin. Faces hollowed out and limbs looked impossibly frail,” Moeletsi says. advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads He also describes the final moments of those he witnessed dying saying “they didn’t die with any great commotion just a quiet surrender as if their bodies had finally given up” drawn-out death that consumed them piece by piece should ever endure such suffering again.”  Moeletsi also describes how some miners plummeted to their deaths when they tried to climb out using metal rods called “ligaters” which are “single metal rods extending from the deepest part of the mine to the surface.” According to Moeletsi miners tried to climb these thin rods as a means of escape “Those who fell plummeted to the very bottom of the mine a place so remote and dangerous that recovery was nearly impossible without specialised equipment Their remains were left at the base of the mine a haunting reminder of the lengths people went to to fight for survival.” Read more: ‘Even prisoners are not left to die’ — community supports illegal miners as SAPS refuses to assist the illegal miners had heard news that food was being delivered to the entrance of Shaft 11 and they made their way there through underground passageways The area around the shaft was crowded and when food was eventually delivered on 16 November “What I witnessed in shafts 10 and 11 will stay with me forever a testament to the cruelty of neglect and the resilience of those who fought to survive despite impossible odds another artisanal miner and I counted roughly 900 people waiting in line for a share coupled with their weakened and emaciated state I believe there were still other artisanal miners scattered throughout different levels of the mine,” he said Moeletsi was rescued from Shaft 11 on 9 December and he says he was selected by “the community underground due to my weakened state” “The relief of being taken out of the mine was overwhelming but the toll of the experience still weighed heavily on me,” he said After surfacing he was arrested and was released on 31 December The government respondents have opposed the application saying the case should not have been brought before the ConCourt at this stage The ConCourt is the court of last instance meaning it is the final decision maker on legal matters in the county most cases go through the high court and Supreme Court of Appeal before reaching the ConCourt the ConCourt can choose to hear any case on constitutional grounds in exceptional circumstances a deputy state attorney who deposed the affidavit on behalf of the government says the case brought by Macua doesn’t have any exceptional circumstances “The applicant attempts to obscure the numerous fatal flaws in its high court application by relying on emotionally charged rhetoric seeming in the hope of securing direct access out of sympathy for the unfortunate circumstances the illegal miners have created for themselves,” Chowe says He also points out that between 15 November and 18 December Macau had brought four urgent applications to the high court and argues that the NGO wants to rectify errors in its previous cases through the ConCourt case Chowe also argues that Macua doesn’t make a strong case for the enforcement of rights under section 38 of the Constitution “By presenting its case in such a materially deficient manner the applicant has failed to address the fundamental prerequisites for obtaining a constitutional remedy under Section 38,” he says Section 38 deals with the enforcement of the rights within the bill of rights The State Attorney also wrote a letter to Chief Justice Mandisa Maya requesting more time to file additional court papers the State Attorney says that the Buffelsfontien Gold Mine (BGM) company should have taken reasonable steps to secure the mine shafts in terms of the Mine Health and Safety Act BGM’s legal duty may extend to (illegal) trespassers depending on the facts,” the State Attorney says in the letter The letter also indicates that a report commissioned from Mine Rescue Services (MRS) by BGM indicates that it could cost R11.3-million to rescue the illegal miners the MRS estimates that 550 people are underground The estimate excludes the cost of building an access road that would be capable of bearing the lead of the 45-tonne mobile rescue winder “As to the estimated duration of a rescue operation the MRS report states the following: ‘With 550 illegal miners number reported to us during the camera inspection we added a 10% contingency and the number of employees we can extract during the active 10 hours hoisting shift will be 34 The State Attorney said BGM has previously acknowledged that “the legal duty in respect of the trespassing miners rests upon BGM” that the costs of the operation should be provided from the mine rehabilitation fund but irrelevant for the issues under consideration.” BGM has also indicated that it will oppose the case and has asked for more time to prepare its court papers These illegal “artisnal” miners have created their own circumstances the people now want to support them Who do the community blame when there is crime and violence Now when something is done they want leniency Rather like those that steal copper cables and steel railway lines They should just blow the entrances of those shafts and be done with this nonsense Those are criminals and as usual the lunatic fringe has decided that their rights are more important than law and order This country is a clown show run by circus freaks Utterly beyond belief in this age of superior technologies The ANC was warned many moons ago regarding the issue of Zama-zama’s and never bothered to listen nor take drastic measures in order to address the problem Foreigners come from nearby countries illegally and turn SA into a laughing stock The illegal miners kingpins are now conveniently funding Macua to fight their legal battles in their pursuit to justify this lawlessness These people had no regard for their safety at all by going under ground The subtle and not so subtle wording of this article makes me cynical about main stream media: “artisanal mining” When they constituted a risk to communities and especially as a result of stock losses by farmers Well it seems likely to me that these men might be hesitant and make mistakes when speaking a language they don’t use regularly but might be quite eloquent when speaking their native tongue all that’s needed is a translator (and a lawyer to say “you can’t say that”) These thieves are the authors of their own misfortune They are not victims as some try to suggest All they need to do is come out and face the music Apparently the ANC makes better lives for all Notably the quotes from Moeletsi are in rather fine educated language The human rights groups must pay for rigging equipment to rescue these miners so they can come up and be arrested Less talk from human rights groups and more action These guys get public funding for a reason The big guns behind the Zama Zama must pay for this it’s proberly goes like this “you need to sign this paper now These so called human right NGOs are all in these kingpins pockets You mean illegal foreigners who terrorize communities And the men quoted here do not seem to be foreigners They mine without much mechanical assistance Admittedly that is because they have no choice but it sounds like artisanal is the correct adjective here Same with the gold wholesalers who handle their produce Calling them artisanal is just weasel wordism They are criminals by definition but that term doesn’t sit as well with the feelz brigade Where I get itchy about the use of the word “artisanal” is when restauranteurs chuck it around to justify high prices I remember once being told that the bunny chow on the menu was expensive because it is an ARTISANAL bunny chow Well how does he think that takeaways in Fordsburg make them Do you get itchy about the ‘artisanal’ miners going about armed with AKs and engaging in firefights A very eloquent “artisanal” miner then he/she use it for a while before abandoning it and something befall them whilst they’re illegally inside the property MSM and NGOs: persons A and B are responsible Their own countries can’t employ or support them so they arrive here illegally commit crime and cause mayhem in our communities Would the police not be interested in the man covering his face – or do we let masked individuals walk into banks these days too No he deserves fashion points for imaginative use of underwear and now their supporters are asking the con court to legitimize their illegal operations Next week I’ll be asking the concourt to legitimize armed robbery Please make me understand – these miners can get out of the shaft and will then have food and water – the Police are not preventing that Simple solution – come up out of the shafts this guy indeed will lead us to kingpins- no doubt keep an eye on all his communication and communications beyond him a chain will lead us to kingpins and associates there is a way to clear the miners from underground the world at large would would have denounced them There is too little will to expose the king-pins Are they being prevented from exiting the shafts Strange how these NGO’s pop up to collect contributions There was a similar situation in the Piet Retief district (Pampoenfontein) where the “activist” for farm workers were everywhere – at least for as long as the contributions were paid Lots of bleating about rights but none about obligations Interesting how none of these comments are about the fact that big mining companies don’t close and rehabilitate their sites lawfully many artisanal miners wouldn’t have access to abandoned shafts the xenophobia in the comments is so gross R5 says that a forensic audit of this noble NGOs source of funding would identify some parties from the public and private sectors involved in the ‘artisanal’ gold wholesaling business especially to replace all the qualified technical skillset crowd that left and keep leaving SA There are jobs to be had if the government sets up proper training programs “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Are there members of the upper eshelons who are lining their pockets with these zama zamas ───   KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 12:17 Fri The North West government has started to identify 78 deceased illegal miners whose bodies were retrieved from Shaft 11 at the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein The bodies were discovered during an intense four-day rescue operation from Monday After all volunteer rescue workers were safely brought up Mine Rescue Services (MRS) CEO Mannas Fourie confirmed that cameras and sound detectors were lowered into the shaft to verify that no additional survivors or bodies remained The operation was in response to the dangerous situation unfolding at the mine which is notorious for illegal mining activities North West police have asked family members of the 78 deceased to come forward for identification they may meet with the investigation team at the Stilfontein Police Station This identification process is part of ongoing investigations into the deaths at the Buffelsfontein mine The bodies and survivors were retrieved after the High Court in Pretoria ordered the government to enlist the assistance of MRS to carry out the operation was granted after an urgent application by Zinzi Tom whose brother Ayanda Tom remains trapped in a shaft sent a chilling letter that highlighted the dire and deteriorating conditions underground The government has been criticised over its handling of the situation Community leader Johannes Qankase voiced concerns blaming the police for not taking earlier action emphasising the growing frustration within the community Stilfontein concerned community members assisting with aid for zama zamas in one of the mine shafts The scale of the illegal mining activity at Buffelsfontein has been alarming Reports suggested as many as 2,000 miners worked underground when the situation began to spiral out of control in August last year At least 13 children were among those who emerged from the mine before the official rescue operation said national police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe Buffelsfontein is one of South Africa’s deepest mines with an intricate maze of tunnels and shafts leading as deep as 2.5km underground.  While police insisted miners could escape through several shafts many miners refused to leave for fear of arrest This claim has been disputed by advocacy groups who argue that hundreds of miners were trapped underground some perishing from starvation and exposure OFM/Kekeletso Mosebetsi mvh STILFONTEIN - Rescue operations have started at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine shaft in Stilfontein A cage has been set up with volunteers going underground to try and return with all those still left underground This process is expected to take at least 16 days to extract all the zama zamas still underground WATCH: Illegal mining | Rescue operations continue in Stilfontein  A total of 26 zama zamas were arrested after being brought to the surface with nine bodies also brought up on Monday They have yet to be identified at the local government mortuary The bodies of two more illegal miners have been retrieved from a mine shaft in Stilfontein in the North West JOHANNESBURG - The High Court has ordered mine rescue operations to immediately begin at Shafts 10 and 11 of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein This follows an urgent application by Zinzi Tom whose brother is among the hundreds of miners who have been underground since July last year WATCH: Illegal mining | Govt slammed for slow pace in retrieving miners from Stilfontein The court directed the State to finalise agreements with Mine Rescue Services on Friday This enables the release of funds needed to deploy rescue teams and equipment While it's unclear when operations will begin Mine Rescue Services has assured the court that it is ready to act as soon as payment is received The Judge also mandated the uninterrupted delivery of food emphasising the constitutional right to life and dignity Rescue efforts are expected to begin without further delays JOHANNESBURG - North West police are expected to give an update on the escape of Stilfontein kingpin James Tshoaeli escaped after being rescued from an abandoned shaft last week READ: Illegal mining | Hunt for Stilfontein kingpin continues He is believed to have been one of the key figures behind the illegal underground mining operations there His escape is widely suspected to have been orchestrated as part of an inside job but he never turned up at police holding cells or hospitals More than 50 civil society organisations have banded together to uncover exactly what caused the deaths of the miners who perished in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine siege At least 20 of the informal miners who died in Shaft 11 of the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein died of starvation and dehydration. This is according to the Mining Affected Communities United in Action, which appointed an independent pathologist to carry out autopsies on the deceased miners.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Mining Affected Communities United in Action held a media briefing on the sidelines of its summit on Thursday at which the organisation revealed that its independent pathologist had personally completed 20 autopsies which proved beyond a doubt that the miners had starved and dehydrated to death The organisation’s pathologist also found that the miners had suffered from severe immune system suppression The independent pathologist is still reviewing additional autopsies but so far starvation remains consistent across all cases These are not natural deaths — they were entirely preventable The miners’ deaths come after the South African Police Service (SAPS) sealed all entrances to Shaft 11 of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in August as part of Operation Vala Umgodi The move ultimately cut off access to food reports began circulating of police on the ground turning away food parcels meant for those stuck underground despite a high court order compelling the delivery of food and water who accused the police of actively sabotaging the system the community had set in place to get supplies to the miners Mnguni alleged that the police actively blocked or damaged resources from community rescue teams Although Mining Affected Communities United in Action has announced the cause of death for some of the miners the government has yet to release the state’s autopsy results North West Health MEC Sello Lehari confirmed that the postmortems had been concluded but the details could not be revealed because the police investigation was ongoing Mining Affected Communities United in Action joined by 50 other community-based organisations including the Stilfontein Solidarity Committee and Khuma community leaders condemned Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe for reiterating his unmoving stance on the government’s handling of the Stilfontein humanitarian crisis Giving the opening address at a mining indaba in Cape Town, Mantashe said that the Stilfontein crisis was not a humanitarian issue and that the government was under no obligation to provide the miners with food or aid.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads “It’s like committing suicide. Committing suicide can’t be a humanitarian case,” the minister said.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Read more: Stilfontein solidarity in Cape Town: Miners ‘are human beings and their dignity should have been protected’ “Mantashe’s claim that humanitarian organisations should not have intervened because the miners ‘voluntarily’ entered dangerous conditions is not only morally bankrupt but also an open endorsement of mass murder His statement reflects a deeply fascist mentality that says poor black workers are disposable and unworthy of basic human rights,” Mnguni said The organisations added that by refusing to provide humanitarian assistance painful deaths from starvation and dehydration the South African government had carried out an intentional act of state-sponsored extermination At a Stilfontein solidarity picket on the sidelines of the mining indaba in Cape Town on Wednesday, 5 January 2025, about 50 people demonstrated against the exclusion, exploitation, and criminalisation of artisanal miners and mining-affected communities.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Stilfontein Solidarity Committee member Hannah Kaniki an intersectional justice activist at Protest as Praxis and Artists4Equity told Daily Maverick: “The massacre at Stilfontein exposes the deep dehumanisation of workers who were at least recognised as part of the formal economy Kaniki said that zama zamas were entirely excluded from legal economic structures “The siege of Stilfontein (where the state used starvation tactics to force miners out) showed the ultimate level of dehumanisation — treating workers as disposable not even worthy of basic humanitarian consideration,” Kaniki said Mining Affected Communities United in Action and Stilfontein Crisis Committee demanded that the government amend the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act to be inclusive of artisanal and small-scale mining as the current legislative framework served only the interests of large corporations while excluding the communities that bore the brunt of the mining industry’s social and environmental consequences “The tragedy in Stilfontein is yet another reminder that without urgent legislative and policy reform Mining Affected Communities United in Action and the Stilfontein Crisis Committee remain committed to mobilising mining-affected communities to demand justice and push for an inclusive and democratic mining sector that serves the people — not just the political and corporate elite,” said Mining Affected Communities United in Action “This was not simply a case of miners entering a dangerous situation” – These ‘miners’ can just blame themselves Actions has consequences and unfortunately they died due to those consequences You can’t pass your consequences onto others And the ‘community’ that supplied them with food and water needs to be dealt with with full might of the law it was aiding and abetting a criminal activity And perhaps the ‘activists’ as well for supporting them now The criminals chose to starve rather than surrender and now the state is responsible And what on earth is an “intersectional justice activist An “Intersectional Justice Activist”!! A non proactive group that thrives on disaster to maintain personal relevance How structures of power and inequality affect certain or multiple identities a woman and disabled you’ve hit the intersectional trifecta The illegals are responsible for their own problems Criminals that dug their literally dug their own graves To all those celebrating the deaths of the Stilfontein miners or at least chirping about it being “their own fault”: be very afraid of a government that cuts off the supply of food and water You may be the next to hunger and thirst to death in JHB with no water and the ANC run Eastern Cape to honest citizens who are starving It is preposterous to blame govt for the poor health and death of these illegal miners…they knew the risks when they went underground and why should law abiding rescue workers have to risk their lives to go underground to tackle gangs and ruthless henchmen who would not hesitate to shoot them Criminals go down a mine to illegally dig for gold They are found out but refuse to surrender But this is somehow the Government’s fault our People (South Africans) are the criminals now who pillages resources that are not theirs We are wasting precious resources just talking about this STILFONTEIN - The retrieval of illegal miners is continuing in Stilfontein in the North West the High Court in Pretoria ordered the immediate rescue of zama zamas at the abandoned shaft WATCH: Govt rescuers prepare for operation at Stilfontein whose brother is among hundreds of miners who remain underground There's been a tense standoff with police since November JOHANNESBURG - Authorities have confirmed that a total of 118 illegal miners have been extracted from an abandoned mine shaft in Stilfontein so far this week READ: Illegal mining | Police, Mineral Resources Ministers visit Stilfontein On Monday, the operation saw 35 illegal miners extracted, with nine certified dead. On Tuesday 83 miners were extracted, 56 were found alive, while 27 were dead. In addition to the extractions, law enforcement has arrested 82 individuals, who now face charges related to illegal mining, trespassing, and violations of the Immigration Act. Two miners, found in possession of gold, have also been charged with the illegal possession of gold-bearing material. Tuesday’s rescue efforts are set to proceed until 10pm. Mandla Charles, one of the volunteers said, "What I saw underground is terrible." "There are more than 109 dead bodies and they are decomposed. What I saw traumatises me even when I talk about it I'm still traumatised."  "Today we are going to go back underground."  "We want to retrieve at least 50 dead bodies. I couldn't count how many people still remain underground because some are way further deep in the shafts."  "But the ones we were within the shaft yesterday could be almost 100. So they sent letters to other sections where they stay to say we are here to help them they must come."  "We saw them coming in numbers yesterday when we were about to knock off." Scores of illegal miners are still trapped underground JOHANNESBURG - Activists lobbying for the illegal miners in Stilfontein want an inquest to be launched to determine if anyone should be held criminally liable for the underground deaths of illegal miners or zama zamas during a recent government-sanctioned operation The bodies of almost 90 illegal miners were brought to the surface of an abandoned shaft when police intensified an operation to clamp down on illegal mining at the old Buffelsfontein gold mine in the area mine rescue experts called off the special operation in Stilfontein after a sweep of the shaft found no signs of life underground ALSO READ: 43 bodies recovered from Stilfontein mine in last two days  Close to 2,000 illegal miners have been arrested since August when they resurfaced from the various shafts. The official postmortem results conducted on at least 80 of the illegal miners pulled from the decommissioned shaft in Stilfontein are yet to be released by the North West health officials. But lobby groups representing the zama zamas in what's now become a human rights saga say they commissioned their own pathologists to run parallel tests. Attorney at Lawyers for Human Rights Mametlwe Sebei says they have it on good authority that starvation and dehydration caused some of the deaths. He says this is evidence that the government has a case to answer. “Obviously where there is a crime, accountability and liability must follow.” Several lobby groups met in Joburg on Thursday to decide a way forward. Sections STILFONTEIN - Attention at Stilfontein mine in the North West has turned to a rehabilitation process of all identified shafts.  This comes as rescue operations have been concluded at the abandoned mine.  READ: Stilfontein mine rescue operation comes to an end 246 zama zamas were rescued and 78 bodies recovered That brings the total number of miners retrieved to 1,907 since August.  the work of police and the army is far from over The Mine Rescue Services (MRS) team tasked with retrieving miners trapped in Shaft 11 of the abandoned Buffelsfontein gold mine on the outskirts of Stilfontein worked well into the evening to pull up emaciated and dead miners By 10pm on Tuesday, 14 January, 51 corpses had been removed from the shaft, along with 106 miners who were arrested for illegal mining.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads nine bodies were brought to the surface and 26 illegal miners rescued During a media briefing at the rescue site on Tuesday MRS CEO Mannas Fourie said that while the operation was moving ahead swiftly the rescue team faced several challenges when they began their operation on Monday This is a dangerous and high-risk operation We operate in front and on the verge of an open hole We go down for approximately 2.6km into the shaft,” Mannes said Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said authorities had no way of knowing exactly how many illegal miners are trapped underground “We will only know how many people remain underground through this current operation the operation will tell us how many remain underground We will do our best to take everybody dead or alive out of the shaft,” Mchunu said Mannes added that MRS would consider pushing the rescue to a 24-hour operation if necessary According to an update on day two issued by the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure, the arrested miners comprise:advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said that since August when police closed all entrances to Shaft 11 more than 1,576 illegal miners who exited the mine voluntarily have been arrested before the extraction operation The current figures align with what Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said during the media briefing claiming that the majority of the miners are undocumented “Our communities here say we must give licences to [the illegal miners]… If they say so we’ll come here and hear them out and have a hearing that please give licences to steal gold to Mozambicans It’s an attack on our economy by foreign nationals in the main,” he railed a resident of Khuma township in Stilfontein told Daily Maverick on Tuesday that while she understands why the government has continuously stressed that many of the illegal miners are undocumented migrants she and several other locals view them as part of the community While rescue teams worked to retrieve the trapped illegal miners anxious relatives watched from the sidelines as miners and corpses were brought out of the abandoned shaft I heard on the news that corpses were brought out of the mine,” Matumelo (not her real name) told Daily Maverick during day two of the rescue operation to retrieve miners trapped in the Buffelsfontein gold mine outside Stilfontein in North West the only thing I am asking myself is: Is the father of my child still alive?” Finding refuge from the sweltering heat under the shade of a tree Matumelo looked towards the crane that had been set up to rescue the miners contemplating what had become of her partner The 26-year-old had not heard from him since August last year when police descended on the mine and closed off access to the abandoned shaft as part of Operation Vala Umgodi Rescue teams use a crane and cage system to retrieve miners trapped in the Stilfontein mine “I’m worried about him. He has been in the shaft for months now. I have given birth, and my child is two months old. She doesn’t even know her father,” said the young mother.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Matumelo’s fears summed up the general feeling of the angry and anxious Stilfontein residents who gathered outside the cordoned-off rescue site, anxiously waiting as miners — alive and dead — were brought out of Shaft 11 by rescue workers.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Matumelo fears for the life of the father of her child who has been trapped in the mine for months disturbing footage obtained by the miners’ rights group Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) gave South Africans the first glimpses of conditions inside the mine The two videos revealed heaps of bodies wrapped in plastic and a shirtless the consequences of months without access to fresh supplies The videos emerged after police blocked the miners’ supply of food water and medication in a bid to “smoke them out” and arrest them for illegally entering and mining in the abandoned shaft Read more: Trapped miners’ desperate letters reveal grim conditions, numerous fatalities and lack of food Forensic pathologists load body bags on the back of a truck on 14 January Emaciated miners after being rescued on 14 January Mathe confirmed that the 82 surviving miners had been arrested for illegal mining trespassing and contravention of the Immigration Act “Two illegal miners who were found in possession of gold have also been charged with being in the illegal possession of gold-bearing material.” While Mchunu’s address to the media was measured Mantashe responded bluntly to the conditions the miners faced underground Labelling illegal mining “a war on the economy” he defended the government’s slow response in rescuing the miners saying there was no humanitarian solution for people who broke the law and willingly put their lives at risk Ministers Gwede Mantashe and Senzo Mchunu at a media briefing on 14 January Macua representative Sabelo Mnguni told Daily Maverick that Mantashe’s statement violated the constitutionally mandated right to life “Our lives as ordinary people in South Africa don’t mean anything to them; hence he says this There is a lot of criminality happening in South Africa but the government’s response to the miners’ situation shows that they do not care,” Mnguni said made their way to the residents of Stilfontein who had gathered outside the demarcated shaft calling for accountability from the government The ministers were meant to have a meeting with the community to hear their concerns and discuss the rescue operation listened instead to Lawyers for Human Rights attorney Mametlwe Sebei as he lambasted the government for its slow response Mametlwe Sebei addresses community members at the entrance to the Stilfontein mine on 14 January These ministers are here at the scene of the crime Hundreds of miners have died underground in what can only be a bloody culmination of their treacherous policies of the police operation planned and executed with the approval at the highest echelons of the state which prompted the crowd to turn on the minister with loud shouts of “voetsek” The ministers left the scene with the crowd yelling insults as they sped off in their blue-light convoy Residents protest at the entrance to the mine on 14 January Daily Maverick spoke to a miner who escaped the shaft in August just as the police descended on the illegal mine he surfaced from the mine in search of food only to be confronted by the police who had arrived to close off the entrance to the mine “I had been in darkness in that mine for a long time it took some time for my eyes to adjust to the light I didn’t realise I had fallen on a metal pipe,” said Kgathi He lifted his shirt to show a scar on his chest where the pipe had impaled him Kgathi said that he was spotted by community members who found him bleeding in the bushes and rushed him to hospital Moeketsi Kgathi shows a scar he sustained while fleeing the police after resurfacing from the mine in August 2024 I used to break into houses at Khuma [a local township] but they have allowed this mine to stay abandoned while people are suffering “What is happening right now is … very painful and hard to understand It is even worse that it is being done by a government we voted for Now I am standing here watching them pull up corpses I have friends who are still trapped in there and I don’t know if they are dead or alive.” DM If you allowed supervised food passage delivery to a scene of a crime they would still be at the scene of the crime But “Trapped” is abit of a stretch…They arent trapped underground they just refuse to surface because they will be arrested “Am I able to carry your husband out of a [mine] He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out.” They are committing crime and evading arrest They have been free to leave from the start Shakin’ mah haid at the bleeding-heart lying going on here Why didn’t they resurface if the conditions were so appalling @lesley e – alongside illegal mining The biggest cause of problems we face in South Africa today stem directly from government failure to enforce the law Simply put: It is our duty as citizens to support our laws in the desire to be kind left do-gooders often view topics in a single dimension with little regard for other critical perspectives and consequences This “nice” is degrading our world and is likely what the USA and other countries have had enough of This illegal mining is only a crime because they call it a crime The critics are not looking further than the tip of their noses and fail to see the enormous opportunity this was in the beginning and the enormous human tragedy it turned out to be in the desire to be kind left do-gooders often view issues in a single dimension The miners could have surfaced at any time……how is government responsible for enabling them When will supervised supply corridors last until Since some of these criminals have no intent to emerge The irony is also that those who did emerge charged with illegal immigration and then deported It’s a no-brainer: you either die a horrific death or you spend a few days in custody and then get sent home Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that The police release illegals after about 3 months in prison I have always felt that deportation alone is not a deterrent to illegal immigration It must be law that illegal immigrants must be sentenced to a year’s worth of hard labour in SA to pay for the cost of the deportation Their states must also be heavily tariffed This is what happens when an incapable government is in power Draconian measures by the Police are inhuman The comments by Mantashe are insensitive and devoid of humanity There are always alternatives to achieve the required objective Pandering to criminals will only increase our 85+ a day murder rate our chart topping rape rate and the thousands of people who are robbed and beaten every day But you keep on pandering from your ivory tower Big difference between gangsters and cash-in-transit criminals I would suggest that using starvation as a tool is arguably a crime against humanity Read carefully what Patterson Alan John is saying If your comments and theirs of your think- alike commentators are a reflection of the way South Africans are thinking Most of them chose to be illegally in this county Consider the vast array of tunnels and armed zamas zamas when you answer The only way is to wait until they surface Some stay down there for weeks or months at a time Who’s going to hang around at the entrances waiting for the criminals to surface As opposed to dying underground in the stinking darkness then got deported back to where they their own countries You participated knowingly in illegal activities and then expect the taxpayers to come to your assistance when things don’t go your way Very convenient for you to talk from the comfort afforded you by the crimes of your forbearers,it would be against your very nature not to agree Are you saying your forebears are squeaky clean My forebears did not have it comfortable at all but Zama Zama chose to be illegally in this country and they chose to stay down to avoid prosecution and deportment Sounds like something out of North Korea or the Gulag System lets hear your ethnicity and then we can judge just how clean your history is another 300,000 deaths due toe Mbeki and AIDS denialism A few thousand died directly due to apartheid but your forefathers were professionals at genocide @adebisi – I understand your sentiment but i also know that our laws MUST be enforced if our country is to ever improve for all of us who actually suffer most under the current broken lawless system your forebearers did the same thing to the first nation – stole the land and killed the population (khoi The community’s anger has zero to do with the plight of the criminals underground It is actually anger that their aiding and abetting of criminality has been stopped Locals profiteered from crime and sold loaves of bread to those underground for R150 plus Just say the word “Crime” and it is a feast to the bots Reminds me of pub talk after a few beers in the old South Africa They also committed crimes and must also be arrested no one would have gone 2,5 km underground on a rope and without any means to be motored to the surface again I hope the SAPS will not be cowed on this one So what real threat do these ‘illegal’ miners pose to the country and the economy by taking the last scrapings from an abandoned mine in a desperate attempt to feed their families Absolutely none – we need to be clear about the real threat this is not a couple of guys panning for gold This is organized crime involving human traficing and a host of other illegal downstream activities What I cannot believe is that it is so difficult to identify the Kingpins The criminals are the syndicates above ground the organised crime as you say and they thrive because of the Mantashes and the whole string of corrupt police commissioners we’ve had Uncontrolled mining activities may threaten everything human at the surface as has been showen in Johannesburg The fact that this activity is 2 km underground does not preclude rock bursts that could result in serious dammage on the surface Further all gold mine companies pay 40 % tax This is a tragedy and indicative of the bigger disaster in our country – these are people trying to survive How dare they talk about criminals when the real criminals are wealthy officials with Prada shoes demonstrating how to get away with crime Please do a bit of research before actually speaking on issues there’s a reason why the mines were abandoned in the first instance and lots of reasons environmental and economical that makes it a crime to mine illegally Ill-considered comments like those of Piet van Tonder and Sea Bass above show the complete lack of EQ and very shallow mindset which seems to afflict so many our fellow citizens This is organised crime bursting out its seams If you are feeling emotional consider visiting a petting zoo or swinging in a sensory swing for awhile The fiasco is that the mining giants got away with low cost closure It could have been foreseen but they were occupied by the “Communist threat” Mantashe is not the first failed mining minister The road to Hell is paved with good intention and as hard as necessary to ensure that people obey it People have left town because they were terrorised by these people walking around with high calibre weapons…I don’t see why we are being sympathetic..crime is crime Since our country has supported all these illegals ask yourself one question… Are things getting better What people fail to understand is that illegal mining is what funds a lot of other illegal activity as this gold that they are taking out is bought by anyone who needs an easy way to “clean” their dirty money and might I add illegal gold is a lot more expensive to buy that gold Mined legally watch the Aljazeera Gold Mafia expose – the gold these guys mine has to be sold and then minted and somehow brought into the legal market The gold these illegal miners produce enriches their handlers and their bosses many of them with powerful political connections They have been breaking the law without consequence Law breakers are a threat to our country and our economy and it is critical for all of us that our government starts enforcing the law across the board The law’s job is not to be nice but to underpin any functioning society showing how the high and mighty leaders of SA allowed the indigeneous inhabitants to scour the bowels of the earth to feed their families which through inaction by our failed leaders I think it is the deliberate ANC policy of maintaining high levels of unemployment that has brought all this criminality to the fore The unemployed are at the mercy of crime lords and government operatives It is cruel and inhumane but totally ignored by the west We should not have opened our borders in the first place Illegals are destroying not only this part of our economy but they are also attacking all parts of our economy and in many instances with the assistance of government we cannot be selective where we enforce laws and where do not Can these miners please give the names of the gold buyers and when the cops have those guys get the names of the people behind the whole illegal mining trend The givt might not want that info to become public! See Gazeley Walker’s comment above and you see half of the crime obsessed comments You have to have a rich imagination or be completely dumb to link an illegal immigrant from a poverty stricken country by groveling underground to the organised crime To call the victims the criminals is fiction at least this group of people have learnt the hard way What happened to all the weapons they had with them under ground Don’t hold your breath for a comprehensive account regarding the weapons I also would not be shocked if not much information comes out relating to the “leaders” underground that are allegedly holding people against their will and apparently leading operations This is a humanitarian disaster and instead of modelling integrity our government has once again acted with a complete lack of concern for human beings pretending our economy suffers because of factors outside of it’s own doing giving a cosmetic solution to an endemic problem has been the bane of politics from time immemorial There’s no moral equivalence between rule of law & mass murder Witholding sustenance from any sentient being human or animal should be reprehensible Also grateful that I’ve never had to risk life in order to survive like these men These are the same people that ra£ed girls in Krugersdorp and somehow we are talking humanitarian crisis… it does not justify the deliberate starvation of people Are we so lacking in morality that we stoop to this level The community shouldn’t be surprised; they voted the arrogant ANC into power they should vote for a party that knows how to run the economy; until then they will suffer the arrogant fat cats from the ANC ran away in their blue light convoys If there’s still gold to be found in these defunct mines why are they abandoned why cant people get what they can from it – they are still supporting the economy by buying goods psying rents and supporting families rather that than becoming a drain on the State and tax payer it’s only profitable to zamas because: no regard to safety They’re mining out the pillars holding up the mine a Lily Mine scenario for the town above the mine This mine has been abandoned because it is no longer profitable If Mantashe had a heart and a mind could he not use some lateral thinking to organize and legalize this mining activity to the mutual benefit of the community and the economy The biggest problem is that illegal mining is only profitable because the participants ignore licensing and safety legislation plus plethora of other laws and regulations They illegally entered South Africa and chose to break the law They were likely retrenched when the mining corporates decided this mine was unprofitable Is it wrong to extract value from a mine nobody wants so you don’t have to beg or steal to survive the vast majority are illegals from Mozambique and other countries it is wrong to disregard another country’s immigration laws The right thing to do would be to stay in their own countries and not come to SA and commit crime Let’s clarify then: Was the mine CLOSED Then the gold ore is still res in commercio – and removing it is theft the gold ore is res derelictae and you may help yourself INAL so if someone wants to weigh in on that … Every South African should feel deep shame about this Those who planned and executed this “operation” are murderers get food and medical attention then get arrested I understand the principle and the desired outcome of the initial plan Arrested for trying to stay alive ….whilst the Zuptas get away with the biggest theft SA has ever faced If I was to work on an average… Arrested for illegal immigration is a high percentage if those tunnels collapse there is no telling the surface outcome the ‘Zuptas’ was not the biggest theft SA has faced surely it is overtly obvious that this is not an either/or scenario @Frank Oosterhof Don’t you dare tell me I should feel shame They got themselves into their current situation and now I must feel shame The blame falls entirely on the ANC no matter from which angle you look at it Have to agree with this statement made by MaverickMe We are flooded with illegals and it’s crippling our economy If I decide as a citizen to illegally mine Your reporter claims these miners are “trapped” in the mine but fails to explain What is stopping them from exiting and accessing food & water The phenomenon of zama zama mining in South Africa is intricately linked to unemployment and poverty Addressing these underlying issues through job creation and regulatory reform is crucial to mitigating the negative consequences of zama zama mining Although of course it is mostly illegal immigrants involved in the illegal mining activities… It is time we had a government who understands and prioritises economic growth above ideology We have some of the best resources to do this but the directors are currently disfunctional at all levels How quickly people forget that these miners ran an armed criminal network terrorising communities and wreaking havoc And now the poor “artisanal miners” as one bleeding heart Daily Maverick journalist called them are perceived to be harmless struggling individuals who are being persecuted Maybe DM can explain why these “artisanal miners” are running around brandishing AK and R5 assault rifles Let us not forget the gang rape of 8 women by zama zamas during a music video shoot outside Krugersdorp (Aug-2022) The big question is could the miners have got out but refused or were they trapped either by accident or by the police If the police trapped them and then starved them to death they are guilty of murder If they could have come out but refused then they have only themselves to blame I was scared that I would be shot.” This would appear to be one reason why they haven’t surfaced Will we ever get the whole truth about all this There is another option: They were trapped by their gang bosses and not allowed to surface What I dont understand is miners are telling us about the BOSSES being armed and controlling the food,live underground Why should we be blamed for their greed,they made a choice the one the ANC taught them EVERYTHING IS FREE we the tax payers are paying for their greed Nobody is stopping them from coming up so why don’t they Why are they armed with assault rifles and other weapons They can co-operate with authorities but they choose not to You’ll find my sympathy for these criminals down one of those shafts but government sent legal teams to fight for humen1terian rights between Palestine and Israel Sort out your own countries issues before interfering in other countries wars A different approach would’ve helped I agree that in order to stop this you have to cut off the head of the snake No kingpins have been arrested because they are protected by some very powerful people how many miners died so far under cyril’s watch you know it is heart breaking that one can say the illegal miners are forced to this conditions because the government is not creating enough jobs so are you saying the government must create jobs for illegal Immigrants so that they don’t resort to illegal mining This ANC government screams at the top of their lungs about the so-called starvation of Hamas ( total fabrication by the way ) While gleefully starving the zama zama’s to death with all the modern technology available (and paying labouring miners R6,000 a month) not get anywhere a profit even with the price of gold at record prices and btw I think the lowest paid workers in legal mines earn around R18k a month not R6k As government likes to paint these illegal miners as criminals This illegal industry has burgeoned from tiny beginnings to a full scale mining enterprise and now they cant stop it If they did something about our 40% unemployment it would never have happened Same principle applies to the taxi industry This reminds me of the sealing off of a cave with fire to trap local indigenous folk in the mid 1800s It is inhuman to starve the miners even though what they are doing is illegal not non-empathetic ministers of Mantashe’s ilk People have no idea of the crimes linked to illegal mining and they just speak out of ignorance steal livestock and bring the explosives used in heists and are involved in robbery They raped a man in Mogale City in front of his wife and son who later committed suicide The illegal miners refused to come out and face the consequences of their illegal actions Most of them should not even be in our country On every level what they are suffering has been brought about by their poor choices The ministers are probably beneficiaries to the illegal gold at the end of the day we are talking about people who are stealing Gold from the country right And then they take the opportunity to go and adress the community You will see more of them descending on that community in their flashy cars Even in an out-of-mainstream dorpie like Stilfontein the citizens know that Mantashe is the most useless politician in the government An interesting investigation would be why has Gwede Mantashe turned against the miners now after turning a blind eye and even being supportive for years Was he cut out of the downstream value chain perhaps at that… if you choose to commit crime you accept the risks these people shouldn’t start acting the victim now… they’ve killed and threatened their way through life anyway Mine pillars appear to have been left for a reason Lay this squarely at the feet of Mantashe and Mchunu It has been going on for years and have cost the country millions Self serving ANC are too busy looting and this is concrete proof of their lack of care and inability to organise a piss up in a brewery and when I’m exposed and surrounded by those upholding the law If mining companies cannot make a living and have to close the mines how is it possible that informal miners can do so There were reports of significant amounts of raw gold found So why can people not mine where others find it unprofitable There seems to be a bit of a double standard here The minster states “there was no humanitarian solution for people who broke the law and willingly put their lives at risk.” but this doesn’t apply if someone breaks into your house I am apalled at the callousness of our government An unknown number of miners went down voluntarily to illegally mine gold The miners are not trapped; they have refused to come out Giving them food and drink allows them to continue mining there We as citizens of this country are not allowed to own raw unprocessed gold without a licence I heard some earn as much as R34000 per day tax free How on earth are we going rehabilitate them to earn an honest day;’s work for R5000,00 pm Did the miners run out of money to pay for the food and drink provided by the local communities and these communities refused them credit Also are there kingpins who force them to stay underground until they made their target for the month Based on all you know of the horrific risks what would drive you personally to mine illegally And what would keep you down there until you’re too starved to come out unaided To claim that men chose this fate freely is to deny the humanity you share We want justice on the ground!” and “Justice for the miners” reverberated on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Wednesday activists and civil society organisations gathered in a display of solidarity with the artisanal miners of Stilfontein Among the groups were Fossil Free South Africa, the African Climate Alliance, the Green Connection and the Climate Justice Coalition, and humanitarian workers from Klerksdorp who provided aid to the Stilfontein survivors on the ground.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Klerksdorp near Stilfontein addresses the crowd at the Stilfontein solidarity picket on 5 February 2025 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the Mining Indaba from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Klerksdorp Moshe and Mohapi were part of the group providing humanitarian services food and water to those who resurfaced from the shafts Moshe told Daily Maverick, “When the government took the position of refusing to give the underground miners water and food … that was disturbing because food and water is a human rights issue – whether you are a criminal or not.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads A group of people picket outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the Mining Indaba on 5 February 2025 in Cape Town “We are sad about the position of the police to starve the underground miners We are supposed to allow those people to surface and if they are criminals rather than kill them like mice underground They are human beings and their dignity should have been protected.” Read more: Stilfontein massacre a stark reminder of South Africa’s ongoing struggle with human rights violations they said it was painful to hear a Cabinet minister say that she would smoke the miners out – which then happened Minister in the Presidency Ntshavheni made these remarks during a media briefing in November 2025 three months after the South African Police Service in North West descended on the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine just outside Stilfontein Read more: ‘We will smoke them out’ – Ntshavheni talks tough amid scepticism over number of zama zamas trapped underground When asked if the government would help the people trapped in the shaft by sending food and water Protesters picket outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the Mining Indaba on 5 February 2025 in Cape Town The Stilfontein crisis started as part of Operation Vala Umgodi (launched to tackle illegal mining in SA) in August 2024 when the police sealed off all entrances to shaft 11 in an attempt to lure the miners out This meant the miners’ access to fresh water appeals for the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria to compel the government to provide aid and immediate rescue were dismissed as the miners trapped underground sent letters to the surface begging for food and medication gruesome stories emerged of the miners trapped in the hot dark shaft along with the bodies of those who had allegedly died of starvation with the living forced to allegedly eat cockroaches and human flesh for sustenance filed an urgent application that the Pretoria high court ordered the government to rescue the miners from the shaft in early January 78 bodies had been retrieved from the mine Read more: Stilfontein mine rescue ends with 78 dead, 246 rescued and ringleaders in custody Moshe said: “We are outraged by the deliberate murder of artisanal and small-scale miners across the continent at the hands of the state apparatus and mining companies The recent activities in Stilfontein in the North West province of South Africa where scores of artisanal miners perished as a result of the implementation of Operation Vala Umgodi represent the dismal policy failure of the government “The Stilfontien crisis is but a microcosm of how governments treat artisanal miners across the continent It denies communities full benefit to their minerals and this represents structural violence of the system.” Moshe said that many regimes unleashed brute force on artisanal miners and lynched them daily justifying this as a crime-busting campaign In stark contrast to the Stilfontein residents who picketed outside the Mining Indaba in Cape Town Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe reiterated his stance on the Stilfontein crisis Delivering the opening address inside the CTICC on Monday, Mantashe dismissed criticism of the handling of the Stilfontein crisis, saying that the miners trapped in Shaft 11 did not deserve humanitarian aid.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads “South Africans say on humanitarian grounds And I ask: you want us to be humanitarian when dealing with criminals What are we going to do when we must deal with people who are genuine and contributing to the economy?” Mantashe asked He said the people in Shaft 11 voluntarily went underground which nullified the need for the government to treat what had happened at Stilfontein as a “humanitarian case” Committing suicide can’t be a humanitarian case,” the minister said The solidarity picket was part of a broader action by the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) in Gauteng The picketers demanded the following from the state on Wednesday: general secretary of the Climate Justice Coalition and one of the youth organisers part of the collective of activists that organised the solidarity picket said they intended to amplify the voices and demands of the artisanal miners in Stilfontein and mining-affected communities “We need to start seeing our government take action and accountability for what they could have prevented,” Klaasen said He added there is no such thing as “illegals” just people who were being treated unfairly “You don’t talk about people or any living thing as ‘smoking them out’… What we should have been seeing was an effort to provide provisions for those under the ground in the shafts to make sure healthcare was provided for those rescued and at all costs try to prevent lives from being lost and killed told Daily Maverick the government and the police should have engaged in dialogue with the miners to understand their grievances and provide safe and legal exit1 strategies for those underground Kaniki said that Macua and various community representatives repeatedly attempted to engage the government and mining corporations on artisanal miners but responses had been dismissive and inadequate I’m sickened by the attitude of the SA president (note not my president) and these ministers This is exactly why in general life is so cheap in this country Why are these foreign criminals loving pearl clutchers not shouting and screaming outside ZA public health oncology units that are gutted by corruption and uncaring staff that are killing citizens Never heard of artesanal miners Where did they obtain their diplomas “Never heard of ‘artesanal’ miners Where did they obtain their diplomas” This is like inmates complaining the barbed wire hurts them STILFONTEIN - The Ministers of Police and Mineral Resources will visit the Stilfontein mine in the North West on Tuesday It comes as rescue operations continue at the  Buffelsfontein Gold Mine shaft.   A cage has been set up as volunteers head underground to bring out those still left underground READ: Illegal mining | Stilfontein rescue operation brings up miners Dozens of zama zamas were arrested after being brought to the surface and at least nine bodies were recovered on Monday The operation follows a weeks-long saga at the abandoned shaft where authorities have been accused of trying to force the miners to surface by throttling food and water supplies lowered to them by the surrounding community It is not clear how many people are in the shaft The emaciated bodies being hauled out of the hellhole near Stilfontein in North West are shocking testimony to the achievement of the South African state’s “surrender or starve” strategy in “smoking out” illegal miners This is a chronicle of deaths foretold – around 60 and counting. But this standoff between police and illegal miners has deep historical roots and there are no easy paths to resolving the issues that gave rise to this calamity.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Like so many other tragedies that scar the history of South African mining this unfolding catastrophe in the gold fields has taken its grim toll overwhelmingly on poor black workers from neighbouring countries who have been exploited to enrich others from the country’s glittering resource wealth To recap: the South African Police Service (SAPS) in early November said they had arrested 565 gold miners in North West as part of Operation Vala Umgodi the cops said the zamas were resurfacing “…as a result of starvation and dehydration SAPS and members of the SANDF blocked communities in and around these abandoned mining shafts … from delivering food parcels water and necessities to these illegal miners This act of stamping the authority of the state eventually forced these illegal miners to resurface.” The police used the term “starvation”– it was the goal and the ghastly results are now emerging from the depths Read more: Hundreds of illegal miners arrested after underground food and water supplies cut “There are two things you need to survive underground: food and water You can always get water down a mine but the food ban has made a real difference,” former Harmony chief executive Graham Briggs told Reuters in 2012 Unions signed up to the ban on condition that a hearty free meal be provided at the surface at the end of each shift That policy was worked out with unions by a legitimate mining company to deprive illegal miners of food But the Stilfontein saga – which will probably soon be known as the “Stilfontein Slaughter” or something along those lines – has taken this strategy to a new and brutal level Industry sources have told this correspondent in the past that the first sign that a team of illegal miners has ended a months-long “shift” underground to be replaced by a new one is when almost all food and water in shops in the vicinity vanishes from the shelves This is a reflection of the underground economy which has enabled illegal mining to flourish and the tactics used in Stilfontein were a response to this state of affairs But it failed to take into account that zamas are often coerced to remain below the surface. Survivors’ testimony will be needed in the coming weeks and months to confirm this, but it is plausible that many of these men were forced to “stay and starve”.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads These were not hunger strikers suffering for a political cause The illegal miners themselves have few alternatives to their dangerous occupation Their plight is a legacy of South Africa’s migrant labour system which for decades ruthlessly exploited an impoverished and cheap rural workforce from Mozambique Lesotho and the former bantustan territories South Africa’s mines in the 1980s employed almost 500,000 foreign workers according to the last available data provided to me by the Minerals Council South Africa But the economies of Lesotho and Mozambique remain woefully undeveloped. Many of the rhino poachers in Kruger, the livestock rustlers on the Lesotho border and the men collecting recycling refuse in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs hail from both nations.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Read more: How the twilight of SA’s migrant labour system spawned a social apocalypse Most of those who have been brought to the surface near Stilfontein in recent days Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe’s comments in Stilfontein on Tuesday were stunningly callous and ignored a chapter of history that he himself played a role in  “Our communities here say we must give licences to [the illegal miners] … If they say so, we’ll come here and hear them out and have a hearing that please give licences to steal gold to Mozambicans, Zimbabweans and Lesotho nationals. It’s a criminal activity. It’s an attack on our economy by foreign nationals in the main,” he said.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Read more: Stilfontein body count mounts as 51 corpses hauled from mine, 106 rescued The fathers and grandfathers of the men that Mantashe disparaged were his comrades in the National Union of Mineworkers Now wrapped in a blue-light bubble of self-importance he has no empathy for the horrors they endure Alternative strategies that come to mind include a display of basic human decency The men were clearly trapped with no other route out and possibly coerced Providing them with a minimum amount of food and water in this situation would not have been to support illegal mining activities – it would have been humanitarian aid one of South Africa’s leading human rights lawyers told Daily Maverick that there were grounds for legal action When the police cut off the food supply and their means of exiting the mine they should have been aware that people would starve to death They should be held responsible for the deaths that ensued,” he said the cops’ statements in the public domain may be used against the SAPS in court But the situation is also not so clear cut told Daily Maverick that the men who starved and the survivors surfacing were probably those who did not get their share of what food was left because they were “unproductive.” they are laying off those deemed useless,” he said In a system that is akin to modern slavery Nel said that in return for access to the shafts illegal miners had to produce a certain amount of gold to pay for their equipment and food before they could earn a “wage” that the ringleaders and their armed muscle may remain down there until the storm on the surface subsides perhaps they would have consumed any food that was sent down much needs to be done to curtail the illicit gold economy in its current form Mozambique and Zimbabwe with meaningful job creation would be a good start but that is not going to happen anytime soon under the current governments Arming the South African police and prosecuting authorities with the capacity to go after the kingpins would also be helpful and there are some tentative signs that the business/government initiative on crime and corruption is bearing some fruit Clamping down on illegal gold mining should be a priority Formalising the sector is an idea that has floated around for years but it is easier said than done and there seems to be no political push in this direction One of the good-news stories to emerge from South Africa’s formal mining sector in the past couple of decades has been the vast improvement in health and safety As of early October – when the data was last available – 2024 was on track to be a record safety year Read more: South Africa’s mining sector is on track in 2024 for a record safety year  A record low of 49 deaths was recorded in 2022 – still a shocking number but a far cry from the carnage of the 1980s when as many as 800 South African miners were killed on the job in a single year But there is no remotely accurate record of the zama zama body count over the years The skeletal corpses being hoisted up the Stilfontein shaft are the tip of a monstrous iceberg of injustice no work,no food it stil stays youre choice and everytime there is someone saying,humanrights its wrong,they did it to themselves its free choice,greed,stop blaming other people There is an old saying “you can lead a horse to water There is nothing in law that says police must go into a cave climb a cliff face or do anything else that puts their lives at risk so long as the criminals are not a threat to others are not going to let their slaves just walk away When one is desperate enough to willingly be enslaved It’s an historical and humanitarian tragedy They had a choice in as much as somebody who has no work bills to pay and a family to feed has choices And the criminal bosses know this and take as much advantage as they can Can all the bleeding hearts please provide their plans in solving the illegal mining crisis We cannot manage to create jobs for our own citizens are you suggesting we can do that for illegal immigrants Or are you referring to the community who support the illegal miners Our uncaring and inept government then take an issue of survival and twist it into a travesty of law The DMRE makes it almost impossible to officially close a mine This is one of the many ways in which they have killed the mining industry in RSA we were the biggest gold producer in the world Who is to blame for criminals breaking it open Must they spend a fortune getting everyone out first before that Many of the bleeding hearts would call for legalizing criminality much like BEE also legalized racialized theft It would involve ignoring immigration laws The tens of thousands of illegal miners will become millions Universal Basic Income will mean that locals don’t have to go down to put food on the table Non-residents get offered a deal: No charges if you finger the guy who recruited you &/or the guy you sell to Because it is the guys further up the food chain that we really want Is anyone actually preventing the criminal miners from leaving the mine The miners in shafts 10 and 11 are indeed trapped They are two kilometers underground and cannot get to the surface without assistance There were some who did indeed come out by themselves but “the community” can get food down to them so why can’t they just do the opposite and get to “the community” (and of course I particularly like the fat “suit” standing there “observing” The government essentially had 2 options to stamp out illegal mining Either arrest the kingpins who derive the real value to enable illegal mining or starve the illegal miners to force them to cease mining the government chose the worst of the 2 options I would love one of these ongoing articles to explain all the dynamics and logistics at play because I’m not following those details even if I get the broader economic and human rights discussions Sort out Zimbabwe and Mozambique: Zama Zamas will stop coming Yet Cyril went to the Inauguration of Frelimo’s stolen election and the government does nothing to when ZANU-PF rig polls in Zim Zama have zilch to do with SA’s history and everything to do with current foreign policy If one looks at the situation it bears all the trademarks of debt bandage …..As the fat cat powers-that-be stand around waiting to see the effects of their inaction and decisions The same people who decried the actions of the Apartheid years It’s a tragedy – but at whose behest there exists the other significant mafia industry How many bus drivers are shot or threatened by taxi associations There can be no justification for intentionally starving people to death especially in a case like this where there is such a huge power disparity between the State on one hand I am dismayed by the callous reactions of my fellow citizens to this tragedy get to those deemed “unproductive” Would the ring-leaders not want to have control on the supplies What else can the police do besides going down and fighting with the armed gangs below Anybody can come out the so called arrests are derisory and there is no crime committed called panning for gold except that of trespass Sending food down will prolong the issue sit it out the bosses will come I understand the argument goes the illegal miners are trapped cannot resurface because ring-leaders are holding them against their will… If food is sent down will the ring-leaders that are well capable of holding the miners against their will be gracious enough to let the miners access food I’m sure all fair-minded South Africans who have even a gram of humanity are deeply ashamed of this episode While there has been right and wrong on both sides there is no excuse for using 15th century “starve or surrender” tactics in the 21st century No one should rob the state of the taxes they are owed and expect to get away with it well none other than a former General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers Consequence: NUM and Minister Mantashe are at best indifferent Since when does theft carry a death sentence by starvation This in a country where unemployment and therefore desperate measures to survive has reached ridiculously high levels if we reduce our overlarge cabinet to a more reasonable size NORTH WEST - North West Health MEC Sello Lehari will provide an update today on the completion of autopsies of deceased illegal miners recovered from the Stilfontein mine over 2,000 suspected illegal miners have been arrested as part of Operation Vala Umgodi at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine More than 70 bodies of miners who perished underground have been recovered after authorities cut off their food and water supplies in November Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) - At least 78 illegal miners have died in the Stilfontein gold mine in South Africa after the police blocked the entrance to the mine in August 2024 to force them to leave the site and surrender to the authorities when the South African authorities decided to close the mine to counter widespread illegal mining has cost the South African economy more than $3 billion in 2024 alone nearly 2,000 illegal miners have come out of the mine so far Those who came out of the mine described a devastating situation The mine site consists of a vertical tunnel that goes about 2.6 km underground the miners were left without food and water supplies that had been lowered into the shaft by their accomplices Dozens of people starved to death; the stench of their corpses mixed with the smell of the living who had not been able to wash themselves for months Among those who surrendered to the police was the alleged leader of the illegal miners he was not found in the security cell of the police station where he was detained An escape that raises suspicions of complicity among the police The escape of "Tiger" fuels suspicions of a real criminal network that has been looting some of the country's 6,000 abandoned gold-rich mines for years in search of remaining deposits These are mines that have been abandoned by large companies because their industrial exploitation is no longer profitable commented on the drama in Silfontein in early January and said in a statement that "the Silfontein illegal mining saga is too complex" "It involves the economic system which allegedly lets big mining companies get away with murder in the way they make maximum profits while destroying the environment and not improving the lives of the people in the area of mining while at the same time it clamps down on poor people trying to make a living," he lamented "It further raises questions about companies not rehabilitating the mines and getting away with it It includes the question of legality and law when it comes to people entering the country illegally as it is alleged that most of the illegal minors are foreign nationals there is a question of syndicates that are allegedly using poor people to make huge profits there is a question of the trapped illegal minors refusing to come out of the mines or being forced to stay underground it is complex and requires research to assign responsibility for it," said the bishop while the media's attention is focused on the government's actions "not much is said about the mining companies who left these mines unrehabilitated and unclosed" the possibility of introducing the use of old mines for economic and employment creation should be explored," he says while handling the present crisis of trapped people who are only foot soldiers should also make their investigations about the alleged syndicate behind all this and have them prosecuted," concludes Bishop Sipuka Hugh Masekela’s haunting tribute to the migrant labourers who came from across southern Africa to dig the gold and coal on which modern South Africa is built and of how a government desperate to deal with powerful illegal mining networks cost South Africa R70-billion a year in lost investments and assets Read more: The ‘surrender or starve’ saga in Stilfontein is a chronicle of deaths foretold As private mine rescuers brought up the Stilfontein miners alive (216) and dead (78) by the end of 15 January on the third day of a 10-day operation this is how the police identified the miners: “216 are alive illegal miners the cops said in a statement: “On day two of the operations a total of 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested for illegal mining “A breakdown of those arrested per nationality is as follows: Mozambicans: 67; Lesotho: 26; Zimbabweans: 11 The cops did not identify the dead miners by name; Deputy Minister of Police Polly Boshielo said their embassies had been contacted. Where were their names, their stories? Why hadn’t the living miners been fed, checked by doctors and given a respite before being questioned and thrown into jail, I wondered.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Many were emaciated and like the walking dead, as this report by Lerato Mutsila and Felix Dlangamandla shows Ubuntu flew out of the window in a frenzy of othering, an act of historical amnesia. They should be shown no mercy, said a Cabinet minister this week; in November last year, the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshaveni, said the miners would be smoked out Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshaveni While Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said this week that one death was one too many the official communiqués reduced the dead and emaciated to children of a lesser God It’s as if the state’s representatives did not know nor care that the Buffelsfontein mine now the epicentre of the police’s anti-illegal mining Operation Vala Mgodi (Plug the hole) Zimbabwean and South African workers as part of the migrant labour system that was a lynchpin of apartheid-colonialism The mine at Stilfontein was one of three incorporated in 1949 (the year after formal apartheid was declared by Hendrik Verwoerd) and later became part of the Genmin stable, a company at which both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe organised workers and rose as mineworker leaders.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Their roles as National Union of Mineworkers general secretaries are why both hold their current jobs.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads A people’s government can never forget our history, even as it tackles illegal mining, which, as Nokhukhanya Mntambo of EWN showed is highly organised and profitable for its kingpins even as a wave of anti-migrant sentiment sweeps the land – so powerful that the overwhelming response to the dead and emaciated men is that they deserve no better because they are foreigners there was only one story about South Africa the upbeat assessment of South Africa’s growth potential in a new Bloomberg survey or the fact that the rand was the top performer against a surging US dollar in 2024 The story of the dead miners, the starving miners who were rescued by the government only after civil society and the courts intervened, flashed across the world. Video images showed the nightmare underground at Buffelsfontein, a shuttered mine where the remaining gold in the reef lies almost 2km underground.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Many of the tunnels were flooded by acid mine water making it impossible for workers to swim out to reach one of the two shafts they could use the executive director of Mining Affected Communities United in Africa (Macua) and last weekend’s court case brought by Lawyers for Human Rights Over the next week, more bodies and more starving miners will be brought to the surface as a private company conducts the professional rescue operation and targets 10 days for complete retrieval.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Ramaphosa must take the lead in ensuring that this appalling story does not become another Marikana the 2012 massacre of striking miners by post-apartheid police in which 34 miners and 10 security workers at Lonmin were killed It is an albatross Ramaphosa continues to carry as he was on the Lonmin board at the time as a shareholder and intervened to counsel executives to ask for more muscular police action Of course, he wasn’t to blame for the police shootings, but he was not close enough to the pressure building at the mine. The Farlam Commission of Inquiry into Marikana found that Ramaphosa could have used his ample political capital to push for a peaceful strike resolution.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads This time, Ramaphosa must get proximate and lead by heart. Ubuntu’s language and practice, the constitutional values of solidarity and our commitment to Pan-Africanism must replace the cold anti-migrant language and securocrat communication that is turning Stilfontein into Marikana. Is the comparison a stretch? No, says Routledge: “That’s how we are characterising it. These are poor black men condemned to death by the state without due process.” He says illegal mining is a socioeconomic problem and not a criminal issue. South Africa is a leading mining economy, and there must be a better way to ensure the 6,000-plus abandoned mines nationwide are adequately secured. Zama zamas (artisanal or illegal miners, depending on where you stand) drill parallel shafts or prise open the old, closed shafts. With superior mining technology and industry skills available, proper inspection and closure shouldn’t be impossible. Only a handful of mines are closed by the Mines Department’s strict rules on how you shut a mine. The state can also beef up its ability to inspect and enforce proper closure. It’s hard work, and there is no doubt that illegal mining is a priority issue, but leaving it to the police alone has made for this early-year nightmare, where South Africa is not acting according to our Constitution or in alignment with our history. Better practice must prevail for the children and grandchildren of the men who came to mine the gold by the steam trains that brought them from deep rural areas in South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. [From Stimela, as quoted by Andries Bezuidenhout.] DM Great article, but can SA journos pay more attention to specialists? Andries is a great scholar but his interpretation of Stimela does not work from a musicological perspective. Also, some of the best South African historiography is on mining: why not ask them for considered analyses? Come on now! By which I mean, why not consult actual historians? Your gifted writing is often challenging. Thanks for this Ferial. Got me thinking about angles Ramaphosa is the Chief Executive and with his many years of mining experience in the union movement, he is fully aware of the conditions experienced by the men underground, once their sustenance was stopped. That he could sit on his hands as men died, is unconscionable. Black lives don’t matter? Artisanal miners or illegal miners. The answer is not simple. Labour unions rightly demand the application of 1st world safety standards. This requires skills, infrastructure and lots of money which only corporate miners can afford. Will artisanal miners be able to meet the same safety standards? Legalizing criminality would not be new in SA. Just look at how extortion was legalized and called BEE. Legalizing illegal mining would create gigantic problems, far worse than today’s. It would mean ignoring immigration laws for a start, which would see millions of illegals flooding into SA. Fully agree, however, they are already flooding in. Hundreds cross the borders daily. It’s costing tax-payers money to get them out. If the government buckles on this one, SA is doomed. We will be over run by illegals. It has to stop, and this stand the SAPS are taking is a step forward. No, which is why the shafts are abandoned and mined under slave-like conditions with no pretence at safety, enviro compliance, tax paying or anything else. If it were feasible to re-mine these shafts legally, I’m pretty sure actual mining companies would do it – like the copper in the N Cape. Although illegal mining is illegal, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshaveni should be taken to task, not reprimanded or removed & given another job, but fired for her utterances on behalf of government. To say it was her opinion is not enough, it is already a massacre on her watch & Cyril’s Very well put. Marikana became synonymous with death, the killing of one man at the hand of another. Let Stilfontein focus on the other end of the spectrum. Birth – a seemingly far bigger problem already in a state of thermal runaway. Marina 34 deaths, Stilfontein 78 deaths so far, and some bodies may never be found, Life Esidimeni 144 deaths but some people went missing Ubuntu is fictional, like Santa or the Easter Bunny. Much spoken about, but never seen in reality. If RSA citizenry believed in Ubuntu, they would have been able to read and write by now and the ANC would have been out of power. And which political party should SA citizen have voted for? One with competent leaders and good economic policies. There are dozens of parties to pick from. It’s simple, choose a party that not only has vision, but has clean audits year on year, their municipalities function well without corruption and runs the only successful province in SA. Look at everything the ANC has touched for 30 years, is destroyed. HINT :Vote BLUE DA Why? Ramaphosa is the worst. Our problem is that we never saw it. That was our mistake. With “our” I mean all that thought that the ANC itself at least would stop its slide. Apartheid was the name the NP itself gave to the policies (including establishing “homelands” etc) it promised when it ran for election. There was certainly institutional racism prior to 1948 but the apartheid system which ultimately made all black people in SA migrants dates from 1948 And in those days it was also practiced in countries like the USA and Australia. This is the key – guaranteed they have political cover (like the cigarette smugglers) which is why they’re never exposed and/or prosecuted. We will never be told, and nothing will ever happen to them. What a load of tosh. Just because your grandfather worked on The Sunday Times doesn’t mean you have right to a job there. The Zama Zamas are in SA illegally and in the mines illegally. Local communities NOT living behind sucurity in a wealthy suburb — like Ferial Haffajee — want them out! Yeah……from what I’ve read, local communities are making money from supplying Zama Zamas with food etc. This might be so but do we have to resort to murder and brutal inhumanity? Let the law take its course by all means but was there no other way to have handled this?? Murder? Try “suicide”. They chose to disrespect SA’s immigration laws. They chose to mine illegally. They chose to remain underground. They chose their own fate. Nobody murdered them. Their deaths are 100% their own doing. They chose to mine illegally in order to survive, no jobs=no food=desperation= beg, steal, mine illegally or death. Then they shouldn’t have come to SA if they did not have job security, and illegally on top of it. Glad they were rescued rather than smoked, but they must bear the consequences and get the hell back to their own country, and not put themselves in danger and commit crime in our beautiful country It seems they did not choose to remain underground but were trapped underground for/by reasons which do not seem to be in any of the reports. If they could have got out why now is a specialised rescue hoist having to be used? Because they CHOSE to starve themselves to the point of being unable to make their own way out. And you choose to whine about BEE LAW. Double standards much there DLM? I agree, all foreign zama’s must be deported, back to their own country, and never to be seen again. Mantashe should get off his arse, and see to it that all disused mine shafts are permanently closed, with regular security patrols to ensure it stays that way. Enough of this foreigner bullshit I love your writing Ferial, but I think it’s too late for Stilfontein and Marikana not to be linked in the annuls of history. If a mine was (legally) built by foreign workers then it is completely irrelevant to this conversation. These are criminals talking about. Send them back to where they came from after their jail terms. Rather focus on fixing 2 tier policing and the criminal murderous taxi industry. From my scant knowledge, many mine employees were expats from around Southern Africa and, like my late father & many others, from the United Kingdom & other parts of the world. And, don’t bluff yourselves, mines all over the world employ expats to do the work. Those who did come out voluntarily, got off lightly. They were arrested but then deported. Those still underground, chose their fate. They also chose to disrespect SA’s immigration and criminal laws. Exactly …. but woke and politically correct agendas do not like facts to get in the way. All of the above is correct, heavily armed, do not have regard for our own citizens, creating their own demise. They should give up the names of all kingpins, and sentence them to life behind bars in a 30 man cell holding 60, and hard labour Ubuntu is a made up construct; SA is harsh, there is no such thing here. Our government, champion of human rights when it suits them, but not locally! The zama zamas may be criminals, but they were condemned to death without a trial. Nothing more then thieves,armed thieves at that. Never stole from the rich and gave to the poor like Robin Hood. Charge them jail them then send them back to were they came from. Now is the time to use some intelligence and grab the crime bosses behind illegal mining. Weapons????? SA is going to have to find a working solution for this. Maybe legitimise the Zama Zamas & give them ‘licenses’ to work the disused mines under certain conditions? In order to do it profitably, they’ll have to ignore every labour and environmental law in SA. The mines are closed because it’s not possible to mine them within a legal framework. If they were, formal mining houses would be operating them, I’m sure. Precisely. The reason why they were closed was a lack of profit: low grades, high electricity costs, week-long strikes, shut-downs after accidents…. One has less than zero to do with the other. At 78 deaths its already a Marikana. To remind you, 34 miners were killed at Marikana. 34 miners and 10 security people, lest we forget. “Does not become another Marikana” – it is already. A shame on the government which allowed this to happen We cannot throw ubuntu on pure organized and heavily armed criminal syndicates, who are illegal in country and committing acts of criminality that include murders. Rich, to call artisanal miners ‘criminals’ for longing to feed their families – by the privileged who read Ferial’s essay in safety, on their laptops, with full stomachs. What’s happened to the presumption of innocence? Or generosity of spirit for the utterly desperate? Humanity, where art thou? Why do you not go “mine” somewhere and find out what the law does to you. They are mostly illegally in the country and breaking the law, so prison is where they belong. This is just below the belt from the journalist. How does Stilfontein compare to Marikana. You are denigrating the memory of Marikana. You seek to gaslight our nation into acceptance and endorsement of criminality. No, we do not accept lawlessness. My immediate reaction too. The comparison leaves a bad taste. Journalists with a woke or politically correct agenda do not let facts get in the way of their narrative If we want to politic about human rights so grandiosely on a world stage, a la ICC appearances, then we must expect the world to shine a bright light on our government failing to do so at home. We know our government are hypocrites. The world news will show everyone else in due course. Yet, what does he really know about mining beyond collecting union dues from miners and telling them when to go on strike? “The state can also beef up its ability to inspect and enforce proper closure. It’s hard work…” The nub of the problem – the ANC is not interested in proper enforecement at any level, just passing ever more (usually bad) legislation as if that’s the answer to every issue in SA. Why? Who told them to crawl in there? Why is it now becoming the taxpayer’s problem to bear? They decided to crawl in there. They were trespassing on private ground, mining illegally. Now bleeding hearts are shouting “human rights”. What about kids sitting on paint drums in vandalised schools? What I’m not getting is that before the cops arrived, it was apparently easy to get people in and out of the mines, food, medicine, mining rquipment (and weapons and prostitutes by some accounts), so why was it so difficult to get them out now? Genuinely confused. Hmm. What a tone-deaf article! Law abiding Citizens are Tired of illegal migrants involved in criminal activities. You should focus on real problems in this country, like Government that cannot employ hundreds of qualified medical professionals, siting “budget” when we have a bloated cabinet. These Zama Zama were not “building South Africa”. That gold goes into their pockets. Let’s not become confused by emotional rhetoric. The fact is South Africa is being bled dry by the weight of carrying its own non-tax paying population, and we cannot afford more illegals. Doesn’t even go into their pockets – they get a pittance from the ringleaders who sell it to the real criminals – the syndicates in Dubai who process all the illegal minerals from Africa and stoke conflicts to be able to do so. The UAE is ground zero for global smuggling and money laundering. Thank you for bringing the reality of the suffering of fellow human beings. I have watched with horror this unfolding inhumane response. “Starving them out” is a crime against humanity and the support for this crime by members of our government, makes them complicit. I write this through tears. It is already another Marikana in my opinion. Methinks you need to educate yourself on what happened at Marikana … a large number of victims amongst the miners were shot in the back. That’s certainly not “storming the police” This article is not fair. Yes goverment is to blame for the economic distortion in SA. We forget to cast blaim at the real culprits, those who exploiting the poor. We need to know and prosecute them. Lets not forget the 70 or so children that were removed from this mine in december. The mining companies that opened these mineshafts and removed enormous wealth for their shareholders in the first place should have been forced to close the mines down safely for the future, paid for out of the same pot! How can this now become the taxpayer’s problem! Just like Marikana, taxpayers will have to pay compensation to these criminals. Lest we forget. The people doing the awful and dangerous job of rescue and recovery here are funded by the private mining industry, many of them volunteers. Not the state. It’s high time this state started actually doing something other than pontificating. It’s already worse than Marikana. 109 miners died, unnecessarily. They starved to death, that is worse than dying by a bullet. It is unjust to criminalize Zama Zamas as they are the victims of a socio economic system created by politicians. So who are the real criminals? There is no mention of going after the controllers, organizers, recruiters, jewelers, complicit police, politicians, banks and refineries etc. To all those ranting about illegal immigration take note what Donald Trump is doing, he said he would impose severe limits on immigration and I think he will achieve more than our entire force of politicians and commentators have in a fraction of the time Re illegal immigration, albeit in another time, take note of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island histories, through which came immigrants seeking a better life, that helped to make “America great”. Find a way to adapt that time to the present South Africa And if any had tried to do it legally, they would still be waiting for their “papers”. Cant blame them for beating the system, they don’t see it as a crime. They cant be called criminals until found so by a court, they are suspects, and need to understand the charges against them How can mining companies claim that billions of Rands has-been lost to illegal mining if said mines had been closed and were not being worked by legal entities? Seems to me the mining companies weren’t interested in collecting the leftover scraps and the artisanal miners were. JOHANNESBURG - The Health Department in North West has confirmed that 17 suspected illegal miners extracted from the Stilfontein mine are still receiving treatment at the Klerksdorp Hospital Complex the department confirmed the death of another alleged illegal miner bringing the total number of deaths to two reportedly died following medical-related complications READ: WATCH: Underworld of Stilfontein: Who controls the abandoned mine? During a three-day national rescue operation, 246 suspected illegal miners were medically assessed by healthcare professionals in the North West. Out of those, 33 were admitted to the Klerksdorp Hospital Complex for further medical care. Since then, 14 of those admitted have been discharged and handed over to the police. Two of the patients have died, while 17 are still receiving treatment. STILFONTEIN - Rescue operations continue for the third day in Stilfontein A total of 132 illegal miners have been brought up to the surface WATCH | Operation to rescue illegal Stilfontein miners continues Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mnatashe Bafedile Moerane is in Stilfontein following the developments With 87 bodies having been removed from the Stilfontein mine (whether there are others remains unclear) and with the scale of the tragedy beginning to fully sink in there will be many different and necessary reckonings As in Albert Street those who have died in Stilfontein are people occupying marginal positions in South African society and living in conditions that reflect their desperation Police should be under an obligation to minimise the risk of unnecessary loss of life irrespective of nationality Read more: Notes on the underground — where the most desperate and impoverished scavenge for illicit gold Clarifying questions of responsibility may involve disentangling fact from fiction in numerous different accounts Notwithstanding differences of perception about questions of culpability many people are likely to be able to agree that this is a tragedy Those who have suffered most have been impoverished men trying to make a living for themselves and their families They may be foreigners who are engaged in a type of crime But we can see the bitterness of their fate − to have died needlessly from deliberately imposed starvation far underground in the brutal conditions in which informal sector deep-level mining in South Africa takes place One issue will be about the lessons for policing in South Africa The key question is: should the police have taken more care to reduce the risk that the operation would result in the loss of life is it valid for the police to take action that is likely to lead to many deaths of people because they are involved in illegal mining This is an ethical question about what level of importance the SAPS gives to the protection of life Ultimately it concerns the type of ethics that the South African public wants the SAPS to uphold and apply is not one which the SAPS appears to understand The SAPS Code of Conduct commits members to “uphold and protect the fundamental rights of every person” But the point that protecting rights involves As the South African Council of Churches has said: “We firmly believe that it could have been possible to respond to the challenges posed by this reality One of the most sacred tasks of any government especially one like ours – born from the ruins of Apartheid and built on the values of our Constitution – is to protect and preserve life.” Along with protecting life it is the responsibility of the SAPS to enforce the law An alternative approach to the Stilfontein situation aimed at prioritising life need not have involved permissiveness about criminality It may have taken more time and involved greater financial expense But the delay and expense would likely have been nothing compared with the likely burden to the government As we reckon with the legacy of Stilfontein we can see that the potential for police to cause grave harm extends beyond the use of force in every operation that they are involved in the first question that police must ask is whether there is a risk to life how can they minimise the risk that people This is not intended to be a motivation for cowardice but for taking the right level of care to ensure that the operation is successful while minimising the level of harm that it causes The fact that this is not already understood by the SAPS suggests that the current police Code of Conduct needs to be replaced by a statement of values that is much clearer about the fundamental ethical responsibilities of the police. For reasons that are not known, the SAPS has refused to implement a 2018 use of force policy that embodies the protection of life principle notwithstanding the fact that it was signed off by then minister of police Bheki Cele David Bruce is a researcher focusing on policing and public security. The police can not be held accountable, the miners would have simply been arrested when they came out of the mines. The courts would then make decisions thereafter. The code of conduct is clear. The police only intended to arrest. If the miners came out and handed themselves over, they would be fine They were unable to come out, their method of getting to the surface had been dismantled by the SAPS. There is no obligation on the police to protect life, and read this carefully, UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. A cop may in fact take a life, to protect an innocent person’s life. There is no obligation on a cop to risk his life in a mine, to rescue criminals from their own criminality. I strongly support greater clarity in the SAPS code of conduct on the issue of the use of force (in this case the “smoke out” strategy) & the right to life. The refrains that “criminals” (not made so by a court of law) must die by their own sword is Old Testament and, frankly, dangerous What have you done to save these illegal miners? What some of us have been suspecting has now been confirmed, that the food that was sent underground was kept by the ring-leaders and not shared with everyone, that some deaths were caused by these leaders, it’s also possible that some deaths happened before the operation. But SAPS is blamed? Do the crime. Suffer the consequences. These miners knew that they are working for absolute peanuts, in conditions that have a high chance of taking their lives, yet still decided to mine ILLEGALLY. Focus on the actual problem, not an easy target of blame. urging him to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the ongoing disaster at the Buffelsfontein Mine in Stilfontein The mine has become the site of a devastating crisis with over 78 illegal miners’ bodies recovered The DA’s letter emphasises the urgent need for a comprehensive investigation into the events surrounding this crisis The mine has attracted significant attention The DA believes that this crisis warrants a full and transparent inquiry into the causes and consequences of the disaster The DA is calling for the inquiry to investigate key issues The DA urges President Ramaphosa to act swiftly A transparent investigation will help uncover the full scope of the crisis and prevent future tragedies of this nature registered non profit organisation in South AfricaReg No: 011-895 NPO