Protracted mission to bring Stilfontein illegal miners to the surface continues
While some hungry and dehydrated zama zamas have since resurfaced, hundreds more, fearing arrest, are still said to be refusing to come up to the surface.
Illegal miners at an abandoned mine in Stilfontein. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Some civil society organisations are worried that illegal miners occupying an abandoned mine in Stilfontein will have a grim festive season, as an operation to bring them up to the surface continues to stall.
This follows months of an intensified drive by law enforcement to shut down illegal underground networks by cutting off the supply of food, water, and medical supplies.
While some hungry and dehydrated zama zamas have since resurfaced, hundreds more, fearing arrest, are still said to be refusing to come up to the surface.
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Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) said as long as the illegal miners remained underground, the festive season would be hollow.
The organisation’s Meshack Mbangula said he’s worried the situation underground remains to be grave amid a shortage of humanitarian aid for the illegal miners.
“At the moment, we as communities, have run out of the supply for the people down there. They need food. Those people are starving, and they will lose their lives.”
More than 1,400 zama zamas have been arrested in North West since August and a dozen bodies have also been retrieved from one of the shafts.
While postmortem results are yet to be released, activists and community leaders have blamed police for starving the illegal miners to death.
Mbangula said the lives of the illegal miners depend on urgent intervention from the government or the courts, although two court bids have already failed to compel the State to provide aid.