MACUA approaches ConCourt in fight for illegal miners in Stilfontein to be rescued
The organisation has made an urgent application for direct access and leave to appeal directly to the apex court to compel government to speed up the operation to bring illegal miners back to the surface.
Fourteen illegal miners resurfaced from shaft 10 in Stilfontein. Picture: EWN/Katlego Jiyane
STILFONTEIN - Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) has approached the Constitutional Court in its fight for illegal miners occupying an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein to be rescued.
This comes after its previous legal bid at the Pretoria High Court failed.
The organisation has now made an urgent application for direct access and leave to appeal directly to the apex court to compel the government to speed up the operation to bring illegal miners back to the surface.
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Part of the application also includes calls for humanitarian aid to be provided to the illegal miners while the operation is undertaken.
The last batch of food and water sent down to the illegal miners at the abandoned gold mine was on Christmas Eve.
In the fresh court papers filed by MACUA, the community-based organisation said it was worried that hundreds of zama zamas were again being subjected to gruesome, undignified, and life-threatening conditions underground as a result of being unable to provide them with humanitarian aid.
The NGO said that in its last communication with the illegal miners at Shaft 11, a letter was sent up to the surface alleging that they had resorted to eating human flesh out of sheer desperation.
That, coupled with the bad weather seen in the past few days, has pushed MACUA to escalate the matter to the apex court.
Out of options, the national administrator of MACUA, Sabelo Mnguni, said the urgency of the situation warranted direct access to the Constitutional Court.