Police minister Senzo Mchunu says an intergovernmental team and community leaders must meet to devise a practical strategy to resolve the stand-off with illegal miners at an abandoned mine in Stilfontein.
Sunday World understands that the meeting, attended by deputy national police commissioner Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili, North West Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management Wessels Morweng and City of Matlosana mayor Fikile Mahlophe began on Friday evening.
It is set to be followed by a series of meetings to seek a solution to the stand-off, which started after police cut off water and food supplies to the illegal miners underground and ordered them to resurface.
However, the zama zamas have refused, leading to debate over whether the police’s stance constituted a violation of human rights or whether the miners are in fact trapped at all.
Mchunu said the goal is to remove as many miners as possible in a day. He did hasten to say that no miners were trapped.
“I do not want to use the word trapped. Nothing is preventing them from going up. We are going to craft plans that need to be implemented soon so that we can take everyone out. We do not know the exact number of people underground,” said Mchunu.
Community leaders argue that there are about 4 500 illegal miners underground.
National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said three illegal miners resurfaced at the abandoned mine on Thursday, while the decomposed body of another was recovered by police.
Mathe said police are yet to establish the identity of the illegal miners and the cause of death for the other miner. Mathe said police have opened an inquest docket to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death.
Mathe said the three illegal miners who resurfaced underground were attended to by paramedics, given food and water, and will be processed for arrest for engaging in illegal mining.
She said police will not allow members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force to go underground because the owner of the disused mine and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said the mine is not fit for human beings. Mathe added there are hazardous gasses and the illegal miners are also believed to be heavily armed.
In the past two weeks, 1 187 illegal miners resurfaced from an abandoned mineshaft in Orkney, North West, as part of the SAPS operation Vala Umgodi, which began in December last year to combat illegal mining.
The SA Human Rights Commission said it had written to the SAPS to seek clarity on its operations regarding the stand-off.
The commission said in a statement it sent a delegation to the area on Thursday and Friday and the “visits provided the commission with a deeper and clearer understanding of the complexities. This includes potential challenges of a rescue operation, and the urgent need for measures to protect the miners’ lives while upholding the rule of law and not risking the lives and safety of SAPS personnel”.
“While the commission condemns criminality, it emphasises that any approach must adhere to human rights principles and constitutional imperatives, including the preservation of life, human dignity, the avoidance of inhumane treatment, and the principle of being innocent until proven guilty.”
North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Wessels Morweng said after a meeting with stakeholders yesterday that they need to allow the rescue team to make the proper risk assessment.
“Our common ground here is to rescue those people. The earlier we talk to community members on site and allow the mine owners and technical rescue team to clear the site and deploy relevant machinery to do the risk assessment, can we start to operationalise the plan.”
