NW MPLs defend police's handling of matters at Stilfontein

JOHANNESBURG - As government faces litigation for its handling of the standoff between illegal miners and law enforcement in Stilfontein, the portfolio committee for community safety in the North West legislature has defended the police.

This after the Society for the Protection of our Constitution took the departments of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, police, health and mineral resources to court over possible human rights violations.

The organisation said that government had denied hundreds of illegal miners at an abandoned shaft the right to life by cutting off food, water and medical supplies when Operation Vala Umgodi was intensified recently.

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While more than 1,400 illegal miners have been arrested since October, hundreds more are said to be refusing to resurface at the old Buffelsfontein mine.

It's been almost a week since humanitarian aid was sent down the shaft, raising concerns by some civil society organisations about the well-being of the illegal miners.

Community leaders and some organisations said police stationed at the abandoned shaft where operations are underway to bring the zama zamas back to the surface had refused them access to deliver food and water.

Although police deny this, no one is allowed behind the police tape preventing access to areas near the shaft as a safety precaution amid the rescue operation.

Clause 3 of the interim order by the Pretoria High Court said that no non-emergency personnel were permitted down the shaft.

Chairperson of the portfolio committee for community safety in the North West provincial legislature, Freddie Sonakile, said this should not be put on the doorstep of police.

"The role of the police is to maintain law and order. There’s nowhere where their mandate is to provide food and water."

It's unclear how much longer it will take to retrieve the illegal miners.