A total of 246 illegal miners who are alive have been retrieved and arrested since the start of the government’s extraction operation on Monday at an abandoned mine in Stilfontein, North West.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said a total of 78 dead bodies of illegal miners have been recovered at Shaft 11 of the old Buffelsfontein gold mine.
A breakdown of the nationalities of those arrested is as follows: 128 Mozambicans, 80 Lesotho nationals, 33 Zimbabweans, and five South Africans.
On Monday, 26 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested, while nine bodies were recovered. On Tuesday, 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested, while 51 bodies were recovered.
On Wednesday, 114 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested, while 18 bodies were recovered.
Operation has not been called off
Mathe said the acting provincial commissioner of the North West, Major-General Patrick Asaneng, will provide an update on the continuation of the extraction operations on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, Mathe said, according to volunteers that were part of the operation, there are no longer any illegal miners underground.
“We have indicated that as the SAPS [SA Police Service] we have to verify this, we will rely on the Mines Rescue Services to confirm this with their state-of-the-art equipment that will hopefully be able to give us a picture of what is happening underground,” Mathe said.
“The Mines Rescue Service has confirmed that they will send the cage underground in the morning [Thursday] to see if any illegal miners resurface with the cage.
“We cannot say for sure that the operation has been called off at this stage. We will provide an update on Thursday morning.”
1 576 illegal miners arrested
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe visited the site of Shaft 11 on Tuesday.
Before the government extraction operation started, Mchunu said, more than 1 576 illegal miners had been arrested between August 2024 and January 12.
They include 997 of the arrested Mozambicans, 427 Zimbabweans, 118 Basotho, 21 South Africans, one Malawian, and a Congolese.
According to Mchunu, 1,540 illegal miners who were arrested are still being held by the police.
He said 121 illegal miners have already been deported, including 80 Mozambicans, 30 Basotho, 10 Zimbabweans, and one Malawian.
Mchunu said 46 have already been found guilty of illegal mining, trespassing, and contravening the Immigration Act.
He said the court handed down a sentence of R12 000 fine or six months of wholly suspended imprisonment for five years on condition that they are not found guilty of similar crimes.
