Operations are being set up to rescue illegal miners and retrieve bodies of the deceased at Stilfontein mine.Picture: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers.
ALMOST 30 illegal miners were rescued on Monday during renewed operations at shaft 11 in Stilfontein, North West.
The extraction of 26 miners and nine bodies on Monday followed the clearing of the site over the weekend and the arrival of a 45 tonne Mobile Rescue Winder crane.
By Tuesday morning, Newzroom Afrika reported that another batch of about eight illegal miners, colloquially referred to as zama zamas, had also been rescued.
The massive crane, according to a government statement, can reach a depth of 3,000 meters underground.
“Once they are extracted, the illegal miners are inspected for any illicit items such as gold nuggets and illegal firearms and thereafter assessed by paramedics on site,” according to a joint statement by department of police and the department of mineral resources and energy.
“Those that require further medical care are taken to a health facility for further medical care, while those who are in good health are immediately detained.”
The departments said all illegal miners are processed to determine their nationality and their immigration status, and once that is done, they are detained in police cells.
“Regrettably and it is unfortunate that of the 35, nine corpses were recovered in (Monday’s) operation and pathology services have removed them from the scene,” the joint statement stated.
“Following the deaths of these illegal miners, the SA Police Service is investigating allegations that the food that was sent down, was allegedly limited and kept from these illegal miners as well as allegations of abuse and cases of assault, following videos that emerged from underground showing some illegal miners being beaten and tortured.”
Mine Rescue Services was scheduled to resume operations on Tuesday morning, and the operation is anticipated to last for the next 10 to 16 days.
In a dramatic change of course, days ago, Mining Rescue Services begun setting up machinery to rescue the trapped miners, in line with a court order after an urgent plea was made by a sister of one of the miners.
Through Lawyers for Human Rights, Zinzi Tom, filed an urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria, in the hopes of being reunited with her brother.
Tom sought the court to invoke Section 38 of the Constitution, where she demanded that the “State take immediate responsibility for funding the rescue of artisanal miners” trapped in Shafts 10 and 11 of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine.
The court on Friday ordered the State to finalise and send a service-level agreement and letter of appointment to MRS and also mandated the uninterrupted delivery of food, water, and medical aid to the trapped miners over the weekend.
On Monday, it was reported that activists in North West have roundly condemned government’s slow intervention to rescue thousands of illegal miners who became trapped after police descended on the area as part of operation Vala Umgodi.
Tensions between the State, activists and community members in Stilfontein have been running high, as the community members demanded that government rescues the miners. On the other hand, government repeatedly insisted that the miners were not trapped underground but were simply refusing to come to the surface, fearing arrest.
North West spokesperson for South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), Mzukisi Jam on Monday said government had wanted the miners to perish underground.
“We are here to assist, that we finally get these people to resurface alive. We can never say thank you to the State for finally coming forth. There is nothing to be happy about here, where we are standing. But we appreciate that some of the families would get closure, and we are also going to make sure that those who have lost their loved ones at least get the opportunity to bury them,” Jam addressed journalists at Stilfontein.
“We should applaud the State for their initial plan to smoke these people out, it has worked. Thank you very much,” Jam said sarcastically.
President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), Mametlwe Sebei said the footage that has been received from the underground shafts, showing piles of dead and starving people, supports the narrative that a “massacre” has happened at Stilfontein.
He said the estimated 109 bodies which are yet to be hoisted from the mine shaft "we murdered by the police".
“What has transpired here has to be called what it is. This is Stilfontein massacre, because what the footage does is that it shows a pile of human bodies, of miners that died needlessly,” he said.
“This massacre, which is what it is, is really a bloody culmination of a treacherous policy that was pursued by the government, and in this police operation.”
IOL
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