South African authorities are assessing whether it is safe to rescue potentially thousands of illegal miners who may be trapped underground, after police stopped food, water and medicine being delivered to them about two weeks ago to try to force the miners to the surface.
A police spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe, insisted to reporters on Tuesday that the miners were not trapped in the abandoned goldmine in Stilfontein, a town about 100 miles south-west of Johannesburg, but rather staying underground to avoid being arrested.
She said experts would be putting cameras down the mineshaft to see if it was safe for emergency workers to undertake a rescue mission.
As many industrial mines have been exhausted in South Africa in recent decades, illegal mining has flourished. While precise numbers are not known, analysts estimate there are as many as 30,000 “zama zama” illegal miners, mining about 10% of South Africa’s gold output in up to 6,000 abandoned mineshafts.
The illegal mining operations are often controlled by criminal syndicates and have been linked to fatal shootouts and other violent crime. A month ago, the government launched Operation Vala Umgodi (plug the hole) in an attempt to crack down on the sector.
“We are going to smoke them out. They will come out,” Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a government minister, said last Wednesday. “We are not sending help to criminals. Criminals are not to be helped, criminals are to be persecuted.”
Her comments provoked uproar amid fears that the miners underground could become too weak to come out themselves and might die underground.
A local community member previously told reporters there were about 4,000 people still in the mine, but Mathe said that was an exaggeration and put the figure at 350-400.
The Society for the Protection of Our Constitution, a legal campaign group, launched a court case to demand access to the mineshaft. On Saturday the high court issued an interim order stating that supplies could be delivered to the miners.
The same day, local volunteers lowered 600 packets of instant porridge and 600 litres of water by rope into the mine, said Johannes Qankase, a community leader. They hauled up at least two men by rope, who appeared frail and dehydrated.
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South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said on Monday that about 1,000 zama zamas had emerged from the Stilfontein mineshaft and been arrested since the operation had started, and any who needed medical attention had been taken to hospital.
“Acts of violence and intimidation of communities by illegal miners is well documented. Some illegal miners have been implicated in serious and violent crimes, including murder and gang-rape. Many are in the country illegally,” he said in a statement.
He acknowledged there was “a great deal of public debate about the rights of illegal miners” and said: “The police must take great care to ensure that lives are not put at risk and that the rights of all people are respected.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
