Over 50 community organisations call for govt to account for Stilfontein illegal miner deaths
The latest calls come as lobby groups mull their next move in what has now become a humanitarian crisis.
Community members and workers hold banners as they gather to protest during the rescue operation to retrieve illegal miners from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein on 14 January 2025. Picture: Christian Velcich/AFP
JOHANNESBURG - More than 50 community organisations are calling for heads to roll over the death of illegal miners in Stilfontein.
The latest calls come as lobby groups mull their next move in what has now become a humanitarian crisis.
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The bodies of almost 90 zama zamas were pulled from a decommissioned mine in Stilfontein since August, when law enforcement intensified an operation to clamp down on illegal mining in the area.
While pathologists are yet to release the autopsy results, humanitarian groups have accused government of starving the illegal miners to death by cutting off food and water supply during the operation.
Attorney at Lawyers for Human Rights, Mametlwe Sebei, said government must account for this.
Sebei was speaking on the sidelines of the second annual Marginalised and Affected Communities Summit in Johannesburg on Thursday.
"The commission of inquiry is going to help us with that, to say what decisions were taken and who were the decision-makers that informed the decisions that directly caused the deaths.
"So, we want criminal charges against police, a judicial investigation to say what kind of decisions were they making, and the structure that has allowed this massacre to take place."