Mantashe defends the govt’s slow response in rescuing the illegal miners in Stilfotein.

By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe visited the site of the rescue operation in Stilfotein on Tuesday, where they addressed the media about the operation led by the Mine Rescue Services (MRS) team.

Mchunu said that there was no way of knowing exactly how many illegal miners were trapped underground, but insisted that the operation aimed to retrieve and arrest all those still alive in the mine.

“The illegal miners we have arrested after resurfacing are giving us different figures and estimates. We will only know how many people remain underground through this current operation. After 10 days, the operation will tell us how many remain underground. We will do our best to take everybody, dead or alive, out of the shaft,” said Mchunu.

While Mchunu’s address to the media was measured, Mantashe responded bluntly to the conditions the miners faced underground.

Labelling illegal mining “a war on the economy”, Mantashe defended the government’s slow response in rescuing the miners, saying that there was no humanitarian solution for people who broke the law and willingly put their lives at risk.

“It is a criminal activity. It is an attack on our economy by foreign nationals in the main,” said Mantashe.

After addressing the media, Mchunu and Mantashe, accompanied by a large entourage, made their way to the residents of Stilfontein who had gathered outside the demarcated shaft, calling for accountability from the government.

Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) group representative Sabelo Mnguni said that Mantashe’s statement violated the constitutionally mandated right to life.

Mnguni said that a mobile phone sent to the surface with some rescued miners on Friday had two videos on it showing dozens of bodies underground wrapped in plastic.

Mnguni said “a minimum” of 100 men had died in the mine where police first launched an operation in November to force the miners out of the illegal operation. The miners are suspected to have starved to death or died of dehydration, Mnguni said.

Nine bodies were recovered in a community-led operation on Friday, he said. Another nine were recovered in an official rescue operation by authorities on Monday, when 26 survivors were also brought out, Mnguni said.

On day one of the rescue operation, Monday, 13 January, 35 illegal miners were extracted, nine of whom were certified dead. This brings the total for the rescue operation, which is expected to last 16 days, to 188 miners removed from the shaft.

South African Police Service spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone said they were still verifying information on how many bodies had been recovered and how many survivors were brought out after starting a new rescue operation.

Authorities now hope to bring all of the survivors out of the mine.

The mine has been the scene of a standoff between police and miners since authorities first attempted to get the men out and seal the mine two months ago.

Police said the miners were refusing to come out of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine for fear of arrest, but Mnguni said they had been left trapped underground after police removed ropes and a pulley system the miners had used to climb into and out of the mine.

MACUA won a court case in December that ordered police and provincial authorities to allow food, water and medicine to be sent down to the miners.

Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa, where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to illegally enter them to try and find leftover deposits.

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