Where was the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution when illegal miners were raping, intimidating and murdering members of the communities around the mines?
An impassioned Brig Athlenda Mathe asked this question on a radio station this week after the Pretoria high court postponed a case brought by the society to force police to allow food, water and rescue services for the illegal miners still 2km underground at Stilfontein.
She has a point.
More than 1,000 illegal miners have already come to the surface, of the estimated 4,500 total underground. And while the current route up is arduous, the police have emphasised that the remaining miners are not trapped but are reluctant to surface because they will be arrested if they do.
Just how many of those miners are being kept from surfacing by force, given the violence that goes with the illegal industry, is not clear. What did bring the issue to the fore, though, was that after weeks without supplies some were no longer strong enough for the arduous rope climb to the surface.
An interim court order at the weekend prevented the police from blocking the supply of food, water and medicines to the miners, or blocking efforts to rescue them.
But it is a complex issue, one which has elicited much debate, some of it healthy, since minister in the presidency Kumbudzo Ntshaveni’s outrageously callous remarks at a cabinet briefing at which she spoke of “smoking out” the miners and said it was not government’s role to rescue criminals.
In the outcry that has followed, there has been at least some shift away from the typical xenophobia about the “zama-zamas”, many of whom are from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique, which historically did supply skilled mineworkers for SA’s mining industry.
There’s still plenty of xenophobia, but the stand-off at Stilfontein has served to foreground arguments about human rights, even for alleged criminals. And President Cyril Ramaphosa brought some balance to the issue by calling for the safe rescue of the miners while emphasising the criminality of the enterprise.
But one has to ask where were government and the law enforcement authorities in the years in which illegal mining grew from a few isolated disused mines to an extensive criminal enterprise, one that endangers the social fabric and safety of communities around the mines, as well as the environment. It puts the sustainability of mining, particularly gold mining, at risk, and raises questions about it in the eyes of investors.
That illegal mining grew to be so large and so dominated by big-time criminal syndicates in SA reflects a profound failure of law enforcement over many years.
Legislation alone isn’t adequate to deal with the problem since illegal mining in itself is not a crime. The mining companies are ever-vigilant and the police often do arrest illegal miners and their accomplices. But by all accounts the courts often just fine them for trespassing and they are back underground the next day.
The standoff at Stilfontein has served to draw attention and controversy to the Vala Umgodi operation launched by the police and army almost a year ago to try to combat and prevent illegal mining.
Even without the human rights issues it raises the fact that the operation on its own has only limited ability to tackle the more fundamental issues of corruption and failed law enforcement that have allowed illegal mining to thrive.
Stilfontein has highlighted the need for more fundamental solutions.
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