Stilfontein illegal mining: Good Party adds to calls urging Mantashe to intervene

JOHANNESBURG - The Good Party has added to growing calls for Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe to come to the table to resolve the crisis at an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein.

The latest calls come as a standoff between law enforcement and illegal miners occupying Buffelsfontein mine shafts continues.

It’s been more than two months since Police Minister Senzo Mchunu appointed a task team to retrieve hundreds of illegal miners or so-called "zama zamas" in the area.

This is part of an intensified Operation Vala Umgodi that saw police cut off the supply of food, water and medication from Stilfontein locals to the illegal miners underground.

READ: Second group of illegal Stilfontgein miners sentenced

Illegal mining in Stilfontein has been a longstanding crisis.

Mantashe has previously addressed the issue, including calls in 2022 for police to double down on efforts to shut down the illicit underground networks.

Although he has not visited the site where an operation is under way to retrieve the illegal miners at the Buffelsfontein gold mine, the minister has made some public comments on the matter.

This includes denials of a humanitarian crisis in Stilfontein, calling for the zama zamas to exit voluntarily.

Civil organisations and some commentators have again raised their concerns about Mantashe’s absence and refusal to come to the table.

Good Party Secretary General, Brett Herron: “We call on the mineral and petroleum resources minister and the police minister to work with the teams on the ground to do their ethical and constitutional duty, so these individuals are no longer forced to choose between starvation and eating the rotting bodies of their dead.”

Some lobby groups have also taken the government to the Constitutional Court, calling for urgent intervention.