Kagiso residents try to apprehend illegal miners in a makeshift mineshaft on 4 August 2022. Picture: Michel Bega
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says the government will not provide assistance to the large group of illegal miners currently trapped underground in Stilfontein, North West.
An estimated 4 000 illegal miners remain underground in a mining shaft in Stilfontein.
This follows last week’s incident in Orkney, where more than 1 000 miners surfaced from a mineshaft due to food and water shortages and were promptly taken into custody.
When asked during a media briefing on Wednesday whether the government will intervene to rescue the illegal miners, Ntshavheni laughed before responding, “You want us to send help to criminals? Honestly?”
“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped, criminals are to be persecuted.
“We didn’t send them there and they didn’t go down there for the good benefit or intentions of the republic so we can’t help them.
“Those who want to help them, they must go and take the food down there. They will come out [and] we will arrest them,” she said.
ALSO READ: Estimated 4,000 illegal miners still trapped underground, several feared dead
The minister reminded journalists of the June 2023 methane gas explosion in a decommissioned shaft at the Harmony Gold Mine in Virginia, Free State, which claimed the lives of at least 31 illegal miners from Lesotho.
“You want us to send our law enforcement officers to risk because criminals went to destroy our country?
“What if when we send police or the military to supply them with food the place explodes and caves in? What will happen?
“So families must continue to sacrifice because criminals got themselves in a bind? No, we are not sending any help. They will come out.”
Ntshavheni emphasised that law enforcement will not recover any bodies if there are miners who have died.
“It’s not our job to retrieve bodies of criminals. When we asked families if their children are involved in zama zamas, nobody came out and said they know.
“So if your child is missing because they are dead underground [because] of illegal mining activities, you must come and tell us why didn’t you come and report that they are undertaking criminal activities.
READ MORE: Goldy locks: 25 undocumented foreign nationals nabbed for illegal mining
“Our programme is to smoke people out and close the [holes] so that there cannot be illegal mining,” the minister continued.
Ntshavheni added: “It’s only in South Africa that you are told a criminal does not have a comfortable bed in prison. I didn’t expect that question.”
Meanwhile, two illegal miners emerged on Wednesday as law enforcement await more to surface.
“At the moment we can confirm that members of the community managed to bring up two males.
“Unfortunately they are weak, they are still getting medical attention,” North West police spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone told the media.
Mokgwabone stated that the police have not yet interviewed the two zama zamas.
“We still need to give them time to regain strength. They are still being attended [to] by paramedics,” the provincial spokesperson said.
He mentioned that some individuals volunteered to go underground to give the miners food and water.
“After we got the message from a volunteer who went underground, we met with members of the community and we all agreed that we should assist where possible, that we should give these people something they can have [to drink and eat] so they can regain strength so that today we are able to assist them to come out.”
NOW READ: Man arrested for allegedly giving illegal miners access to shaft hole at home
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