Community leaders, police lock horns over court order barring non-emergency teams from Stilfontein mine
Some civil society organisations representing the illegal miners at an abandoned mine in Stilfontein are locked in a back-and-forth with law enforcement after an interim court order barred non-emergency teams from the site.
SAFTU's Zwelinzima Vavi (right) and a Stilfontein community leader (centre) in converstaion with police at the Buffelsfontein mine where a mission to rescue illegal miners who refuse to resurface is underway. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/EWN
STILFONTEIN - Some civil society organisations representing the illegal miners at an abandoned mine in Stilfontein are locked in a back-and-forth with law enforcement after an interim court order barred non-emergency teams from the site.
This as operations to retrieve hundreds of zama zamas from the old Buffelsfontein gold mine continued on Thursday.
Some of the illegal miners fearing arrest are said to be refusing to resurface from the shaft.
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In December last year, law enforcement launched Operation Vala Umgodi to clamp down on illegal mining in seven provinces.
With no plans to send boots into unfamiliar territory down the shaft, police closed off the movement of food, water and other basic supplies.
This was followed by an outcry by some organisations, who said this was a violation of human rights.
Clause 3 of an interim court order issued last week preventing police from cutting off food, water and medical supplies to illegal miners is now the subject of scrutiny by civil society.
The clause says no non-emergency personnel may enter the shaft or the site where the rescue operation is currently underway.
But a group of community leaders, who drove earlier rescue operations, believe this doesn't apply to them, demanding to be part of the technical plans by mining experts.
Wanting answers in the interpretation of the clause, attorney for Lawyers for Human Rights, Mametlwe Sebei had this exchange with the police’s Kaizer Modiba on Thursday.
"That order is not meant to restrict the people that are already involved," Sebei said.
Modiba responded: "That’s how you interpreted that court order, that’s how you understood it but as far as I'm concerned, we are not allowed to allow anybody to go in. That's my understanding of that court order."
Following a call to legal, Sebei and general secretary of union federation SAFTU, Zwelinzima Vavi, have been let onto the site.