Lobbyists for Stilfontein illegal miners seek inquest to determine criminal liability
The bodies of almost 90 illegal miners were brought to the surface of an abandoned shaft when police intensified an operation to clamp down on illegal mining at the old Buffelsfontein gold mine in the area.
Some of the illegal miners in Stilfontein in North West get medical attention. Scores of illegal miners are still trapped underground. Picture: SAPS
JOHANNESBURG - Activists lobbying for the illegal miners in Stilfontein want an inquest to be launched to determine if anyone should be held criminally liable for the underground deaths of illegal miners or zama zamas during a recent government-sanctioned operation.
The bodies of almost 90 illegal miners were brought to the surface of an abandoned shaft when police intensified an operation to clamp down on illegal mining at the old Buffelsfontein gold mine in the area.
Last month, mine rescue experts called off the special operation in Stilfontein after a sweep of the shaft found no signs of life underground.
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Close to 2,000 illegal miners have been arrested since August when they resurfaced from the various shafts.
The official postmortem results conducted on at least 80 of the illegal miners pulled from the decommissioned shaft in Stilfontein are yet to be released by the North West health officials.
But lobby groups representing the zama zamas in what's now become a human rights saga say they commissioned their own pathologists to run parallel tests.
Attorney at Lawyers for Human Rights Mametlwe Sebei says they have it on good authority that starvation and dehydration caused some of the deaths.
He says this is evidence that the government has a case to answer.
“Obviously where there is a crime, accountability and liability must follow.”
Several lobby groups met in Joburg on Thursday to decide a way forward.