NW MPLs say provincial govt caught napping on Stilfontein illegal miners

STILFONTEIN - The portfolio committee for community safety in the North West legislature said that the provincial government was caught napping, as rescue teams scramble to extract hundreds of illegal miners from an abandoned shaft in Stilfontein. 

Friday marks a week since Police Minister Senzo Mchunu deployed a task team to retrieve zama zamas refusing to resurface at the old Buffelsfontein gold mine.

The operation is part of government’s bigger fight against illegal mining.

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Part two of this week’s plan kicked off on Friday, with a camera sent down the shaft for additional assessments. 

It's unclear at this stage how far down into the shaft it is or what information it's able to gather.

But it is understood that this part of the plan is crucial for what the experts decide on in terms of the actual extraction of the illegal miners who have been operating here for years. 

As part of an oversight visit, members of the provisional legislature were briefed on what the task team had done so far. 

While the portfolio committee for community safety welcomed the operation, they were worried about the perceived slow pace to extract the illegal miners who had not been sent food since last week Saturday.

They also believe government should have done more, earlier to address a range of issues linked to illicit mining.