A 14-year-old boy is among 14 illegal miners who resurfaced from an abandoned mine in Stilfontein, North West, on Sunday night.
National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said all 14 illegal miners are Mozambican nationals. They have been arrested and are all in police cells.
She said police interviewed the arrested illegal miners after their arrest, and they told police that there are heavily armed illegal miners (men) holed underground in the disused mine.
Illegal miners armed to teeth
Mathe said the arrested illegal miners also said the heavily armed men confiscated the food and water sent down underground for the illegal miners in order to allow the illegal mining activities to continue.
“A total of 14 illegal miners resurfaced on Sunday evening at shaft 10, which is near shaft 11, where all these other illegal miners have been resurfacing. The two shafts are linked, and this goes to show that no one is trapped.”
She said the illegal miners can actually come out on their own.
“They are refusing to come out because they are refusing arrest… They were not expecting us to be at the mine at that time of the night. Our operations continue 24/7…” said Mathe.
Last week, the government deployed mine rescue experts to the abandoned mine in a bid to help the illegal miners resurface from the abandoned mine.
North West MEC for community safety and transport management Wessels Morweng said government will use a machine to lift and take out the illegal miners situated underground at an abandoned mine.
Morweng said the government will not disclose the finer details of how the plan will be executed.
No cops will go underground
He said no police officers will be sent underground the old, abandoned Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein to rescue the illegal miners.
Two weeks ago, residents of Khuma near Stilfontein gathered near the abandoned mine to help take out the illegal miners whom they say are their relatives.
Khuma community leaders said around 4500 illegal miners are trapped underground. The police have since disputed this figure, saying there could be hundreds of miners underground.
Police minister Senzo Mchunu has denied claims that the miners are trapped underground.
Two weeks ago, a decomposed body of an illegal male miner was recovered by police from the disused mine.
Mathe said police are yet to establish the identity of the illegal miner. The cause of death was also yet to be determined.
Mathe said police have opened an inquest docket to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the illegal miner.
In the past three weeks, more than 1000 illegal miners resurfaced from an abandoned mineshaft in Orkney, North West. This was because of the police’s Operation Vala Umgodi.
Operation Vala Umgodi began in December last year. Since its inception in December 2023 to date, more than 13 691 suspects have been arrested. The arrests were made in the seven provinces that are hotspots for illegal mining.
Police have seized R5 million in cash and uncut diamonds worth R32 million through Operation Vala Umgodi. The majority of those that have been arrested include, but are not limited to, South Africans, Mozambicans, and Basotho nationals.
