Illegal miners spend Christmas trapped underground as concerned groups plead for help

As illegal miners trapped at the Stilfontein mine in North West spend Christmas underground, activists have vowed to continue to compel the government to rescue them. 

Last week, the Pretoria North High Court dismissed an urgent application from the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) and other concerned groups. They were attempting to compel the government to promptly begin rescue and resurfacing operations and to provide food and humanitarian aid.

Illegal miners ‘dying of hunger’

In an interview with The Citizen on Wednesday morning, the Macua media liaison officer Sabelo Mnguni confirmed that more than 500 illegal miners who had been trapped since last month had spent Christmas underground.  

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“We are not happy with the fact that people will spend the festive season trapped underground and dying of hunger. We are told that nine people have already died and tomorrow or Friday we are going to start the process of retrieving the bodies. What we are saying is that the government must rescue them because they are just the workers, not the owners of the operations.

“Leaving people to spend the festive season in those conditions is inhuman, hence we released a statement calling on whoever can assist us in our rescue mission. 

“The police removed the system that was used by the illegal miners to move in and out of the shafts, hence now we are using ropes to pull them out, which is a difficult task because we can only rescue one person per hour and there are about 500 people in there. 

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“The mining experts confirmed that assistance was needed as those people could not manage to get out of the shaft on their own. We are using a robe to pull them out, which is a slow process as it can take us almost a year to rescue everyone,” said Mnguni. 

Lawyers to approach ConCourt

However, said they would continue with a rescue mission while the lawyers were busy preparing to approach the Constitutional Court to compel the government to act fast. Mnguni shared a letter written by one of the trapped illegal miners which painted the picture of how the situation was inside the shafts. 

“Parents, the situation is difficult here underground, people are perishing, some people are trying to exit at Shaft 10, but they keep falling, and we can’t find them or retrieve their bodies, it is very difficult here.  So, we are pleading with your parents, we have a lot of people who are very sick, we see the food that is sent to us but nothing is changing as people continue to die,” the letter read.  

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“The problem is that we have been hungry for a long time, even myself, I’m losing my strength, and it is me who is tying up the people you are pulling up. We are eating the human flash because of starvation, please we request assistance, there are a lot of people here underground.” 

“We request food, we have run out of food, please we are humbly begging, people are dying none stop, we don’t know what is the cause, we know that hunger is the reason we are dying.”

Another letter stated that the miners were asking to be provided with a torch and washing powder. 

Help for miners

Over the weekend, Macua and other lobby groups released a joint statement criticising the government for being slow in assisting the trapped people, and they also called on the spiritual leaders to intervene. 

“This festive season, we call on faith-based leaders and organisations to show spiritual solidarity with the miners trapped underground in Stilfontein. As Christmas and Hanukkah approach, a time of reflection, kindness, and humanity, we cannot celebrate while these miners remain in darkness, starving and separated from their loved ones.

ALSO READ: Court dismisses organisation’s application for relief of Stilfontein illegal miners

“Their plight reflects the deep failures of our society, the mines, the state, and the courts failing to uphold basic human dignity and rights.”

 -masoka@citizen.co.za