By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The rescue operation of illegal miners underground at the Buffeslfontein Gold Mine shaft 11 in Stilfontein, North West has been called off.
Mannas Fourie, the CEO of a rescue company involved in the operation, said the company had taken a decision to stop the extraction operation because no illegal miners nor dead bodies were found on the day.
After deploying a cage equipped with cameras and voice detection technology, the equipment failed to pick up any sounds of people calling for help.
Fourie said it was possible some of the dead had been left in the vast network of deep tunnels and would never be found.
“If somebody got lost, you will never know whether somebody got left behind,” he said.
Fourie said: “We exceeded our initial expectations. We anticipated being on-site for approximately 16 days from the outset. We dedicated long hours to this effort and concluded our operations last night around 8pm.”
He elaborated on the scale of the operation, noting that the primary challenge was the inherent risks associated with working over an open shaft.
Fourie explained that this was a huge operation and the biggest challenge they encountered was the risk of working over the open hole.
“There were a lot of risks that we had to anticipate. Challenges were on preparing the site. The weather was also a challenge for us, but we managed to successfully retrieve a lot of people,” he said.
It is estimated that the extraction operation will cost government R12-million.
Through the operation from Monday to Wednesday, a total of 246 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested.
In all, a total of 78 dead bodies of illegal miners were recovered at Shaft 11 of the old Buffelsfontein gold mine.
The nationalities of those arrested are: 128 Mozambicans, 80 Lesotho nationals, 33 Zimbabweans, and five South Africans.
National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said among those arrested include alleged ringleaders. They are responsible for torturing and taking away food from other illegal miners.
Mathe said police are investigating these allegations of torture and starving other illegal miners.
Rights groups have criticised the government for failing to prevent what they are calling a “massacre” after security officials cut off food and other essential supplies to the miners for several weeks and delayed a rescue operation.
A miners’ rights group, MACUA (Mining Affected Communities United in Action) said the crisis was a “massacre, if not a genocide”, because the government’s “intention” to use starvation as a tool to force out the miners encroached on their right to life.
“The fact of the matter is their calculated actions, how they responded to the humanitarian crisis, resulted in the mass deaths, “spokesperson Magnificent Mndebele said.
Officials did not consider the conditions underground before launching Vala Umgodi, he added, and when facts were presented, the police disregarded the human rights implications, while state agencies deployed delay tactics for two months.
The group, one of many that petitioned the authorities several times during the months-long standoff, was instrumental in securing the court order that led to this week’s rescue operation.
In its petition to the courts, MACUA presented testimonies from recently rescued miners who said the conditions underground by October were so dire that some were eating toothpaste. The men added that an intense fight broke out when authorities allowed community members to send food down, as there wasn’t enough to go around.
“We cannot become a society where we allow police officers to facilitate the death or the starvation and dehydration of people, regardless of whatever activities they are doing underground,” Jessica Lawrence, with the organisation Lawyers for Human Rights, said.
MACUA’s Mndebele also accused government officials of exploiting anti-migrant sentiments already rife in South Africa.
Meanwhile Democratic Alliance (DA), that is part of the governing coalition government, are calling for an investigation into the crisis. The party was the major opposition party before last year’s elections saw the ruling African National Congress (ANC) slip in the polls.
The party spokesperson James Lorimer said the DA sent a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for a “full and transparent” investigation into the “disaster”. The DA also said the role of government agencies, as well as the mine owners and operators, should be investigated.
“The DA urges President Ramaphosa to act swiftly, while witnesses are still available, to ensure that this inquiry takes place. A transparent investigation will help uncover the full scope of the crisis and prevent future tragedies of this nature,” Lorimer added.