SA is standing on the cusp of one its worst post-apartheid tragedies as the death toll of illegal miners at a closed mining shaft in the North West inches closer to 100.
Rescuers have retrieved 78 bodies from the closed gold mine in Stilfontein, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe told reporters on Wednesday, three days after rescue operations resumed after a court order from judge Ronel Tolmay, whose judgment on Friday appealed to both the basic human value of empathy and that of legal necessity.
“We are sitting at 166 people that have been retrieved alive from underground. The number of deceased has risen. We are sitting at 78. So just for today, it’s 22 people that have been retrieved alive and 18 bodies,” Mathe told reporters.
The site was swarming with police, home affairs officials and forensic and pathology teams to secure and manage the unfolding crisis. Every corner was patrolled, restricting reporters and onlookers from approaching. The mood was laden with a profound sense of sorrow, relief and anger.
Hundreds of miners have been trapped in the 2km-deep shaft since August after police launched Operation Vala Umgodi to crack down on illegal mining by shutting down access points to the mine.
That decision was reversed on Friday after grassroots lobby group Macua challenged the government to provide humanitarian aid to the miners.
Illegal mining is common in the gold mines that were carved through the rock beneath Johannesburg and surrounding areas.
Still, the latest tragedy is shaping up to become one of the worst in post-apartheid SA, which has had its fair share of disasters in recent years, including the deaths of 70 people when a building caught fire in Johannesburg and the deaths of more than 300 people in the July 2021 unrest.
Mathe said police had arrested more than 100 people for illegal mining — a multifaceted issue affecting many countries on the continent and elsewhere. It is fuelled by extreme poverty and malign actors to fund civil wars, terrorist groups, money laundering operations and criminal enterprises.
“We are working together with various government departments. When they are retrieved, they are processed by the SAPS. We have metal detectors that can determine if they are in possession of any gold-bearing material. I think in the last three days, we arrested two who were found in possession of gold-bearing material.”
The rescue effort has polarised public opinion. Some, including mining minister Gwede Mantashe, are advocating for a tough stance on the miners, saying the rescue is tantamount to helping lawbreakers.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika this week, Mantashe said: “One of the things that surprises me in SA is when South Africans place human rights at the centre of criminal activities. That worries me because we’re preaching tolerance for criminality.”
Others, such as judge Tolmay, who warned that the loss of human life risked becoming “one of the darkest periods in our country” and Macau argued that regardless of their illegal activities, the miners were human beings in desperate need of help to save lives.
Analysts and community leaders laid the blame for the loss of human life squarely on the shoulders of the government, while the DA called for the establishment of an independent inquiry into what has happened at the mine.
“The scale of this disaster confirms the worst fears of many. This raises serious questions about why the situation was allowed to escalate to such a critical point. That prompts the question as to why the situation was allowed to get so badly out of hand,” DA MP James Lorimer said. “There may be blame accruing to both the SAPS and the department of mineral & energy resources and because of this, they would not be the appropriate authorities to investigate this debacle.”
Thembile Borthman, a community leader who was at the mine, criticised the police for not acting sooner to rescue the miners and said that crime prevention should not come at the cost of basic human rights.
Frustration
Zinzi Tom, whose brother is trapped underground, expressed frustration with the government’s delayed response and gave the high court credit for finally compelling action.
“We don’t want to say that we have lost hope. You can just imagine if your brother is one of those people inside when the number increases. Obviously, you’ll be scared but you can’t just give up like that. You’re supposed to be prayerful and hope that he’s still alive. We can’t declare him dead yet,” she said.
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