Stilfontein: Top cop Masemola admits concerns that food, water sent down will help sustain illegal miners
Earlier this week, the Pretoria High Court again granted an interim order for humanitarian aid to be sent down to hungry and dehydrated illegal miners.
Fourteen illegal miners resurfaced from shaft 10 in Stilfontein. Picture: EWN/Katlego Jiyane
JOHANNESBURG - As rescue operations continue in Stilfontein on Friday morning, the Pretoria High Court has set some limitations for community members involved in bringing illegal miners back up to the surface at an abandoned gold mine.
This after NGO Mining Affected Communities United in Action dragged police and some government departments to court over the alleged inhuman treatment of zama zamas underground.
This is the second round of litigation against the state amid a protracted operation by police and the army to clamp down on illegal underground mining networks in parts of the country.
Earlier this week, the Pretoria High Court again granted an interim order for humanitarian aid to be sent down to hungry and dehydrated illegal miners.
The matter returned to court on Thursday and has been postponed to February 2025.
National police commissioner Fannie Masemola, who visited the site of the operation on Thursday to retrieve zama zamas, confirmed some of the court’s new limitations pending the finalisation of the matter.
“Food and water will now be supplied Monday to Friday between 08h00 and 16h00 and no food will be lowered on weekends. Hazardous substances including paraffin, gas, and diesel will no longer be allowed to be lowered into the shaft.”
While Masemola said he respects the interim order, he admitted there were concerns that the food and water sent down the shaft would help sustain the illegal miners for extended periods, defeating Operation Vala Umgodi to bring the zama zamas to the surface.
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Masemola said law enforcement may have to go back to the drawing board as the operation to retrieve the illegal miners stalls.
It’s exactly three weeks since a task team was appointed to lead the complex operation in the North-West, including mining experts.
While phase two of the rescue mission was completed, the final phase to extract the zama zamas is yet to begin.
Safety challenges and funding have again been cited as setbacks for the ongoing rescue operation.
Masemola said the red tape frustrating the operation had pushed the timeline out further to date still unknown.
“Even those experts, they put a lot of conditions before they can go in there and if you read those conditions, it doesn’t look like even they will be able to make it.”
Masemola said authorities may also have to face the difficult truth that not everyone underground is keen to resurface.
“If they indeed want to come out, they must come out. If they don’t want then on our side, we’ll go back to the drawing table to see how we can draw them out but I wouldn’t say it’s a fruitless exercise.”
Another body was retrieved at shaft 11 on Thursday, bringing the known death toll up to eight since November.