‘We will see another Marikana’: Civil society slams SA govt's Stilfontein retrieval mission
Hundreds of illegal miners fearing arrest have allegedly refused to resurface from the old Buffelsfontein gold mine where police continue to implement the controversial Operation Vala Umgodi.
Stilfontein locals want miners stuck underground an abandoned gold mine to be retrieved speedily. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Some civil society organisations fear the standoff between illegal miners and law enforcement in Stilfontein could see a repeat of the Marikana massacre if the rescue mission at the abandoned mine is protracted.
Hundreds of illegal miners fearing arrest have allegedly refused to resurface from the old Buffelsfontein gold mine, where police continue to implement the controversial Operation Vala Umgodi.
Food and water supplies to the illegal miners were cut off to force them back to the surface and shut down illegal underground networks.
WATCH: The complex task of retrieving illegal miners in Stilfontein
The Mining Affected Communities United in Action's national coordinator, Meshack Mbangula, said starving the illegal miners is a violation of human rights.
"I don’t believe this is a rescue anymore. It's just a hearse that is here to collect corpses, dead people because if they wanted to collect them alive then they should be allowing food and water to go in," he said.
In 2012, 34 miners were killed in the Marikana massacre during a wildcat wage strike by workers at the Lonmin mine.
"The way the government is doing things, it tells us that we will see another Marikana here," said Mbangula.