SA’s mishandled mine crisis and its aftermath

The tragedy at the Buffelsfontein mine, where at least 78 lives were lost, has evoked strong reactions from politicians dead set on dehumanisation as a tactic to improve South Africa’s economic fortunes.

This should come as no surprise to anybody who has been watching global and regional politics for the past decade.

While Europe and the United States are waging war on illegal aliens, SA has experienced an increase in immigration from neighbouring countries suffering tumultuous periods, both politically and economically.

With this has come a wave of Afrophobic sentiment. Unsurprisingly, Patriotic Alliance’s Kenny Kunene was fast out of the blocks, equating the miners to animals who deserve to be killed and skinned.

Not long after, ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba jumped in to question the constitution’s protection of undocumented foreigners.

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There are a few issues with this assessment of the situation worth considering.

First, it’s important to state upfront that unchecked illegal immigration is not good in any country, especially one with an unemployment problem as severe as SA’s.

The issue of immigration law enforcement, both at the border and across the country, is a real one.

This issue is largely self-inflicted, caused by severely eroded capacity to manage our borders from a physical and administrative perspective, along with extensive corruption within home affairs.

Yet, this is an absurd justification to lose one’s sense of humanity, or legal and constitutional principles.

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Those shouting the loudest about the rule of law and how law and order is the only way to save SA seem to believe that the law stops applying to people once they have committed a crime. Apparently, the principles of innocent until proven guilty and the right to a fair trial do not apply once you are considered a criminal.

There is no need for you to be arrested, charged and to have your day in court if you happen to be an illegal miner – a crime for which a convicted person can expect six months in jail or a fine.

While the courts were showing that anybody within SA has the right to life and lambasting the government for obstructing the community rescue and supply operation, politicians were riling up their bases against human life.

It didn’t matter that the SA Police Service had lied about being able to leave through the Margaret shaft, a fact revealed by that shaft’s owner under oath.

No number of dead bodies or people having to feed on cockroaches to survive would allow these people to be considered human and treated as such.

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Not even the well-connected kingpin “Tiger” escaping meant we could focus on the larger issues, like the illegal mining ringleaders or the border and police officials involved in the shadows of these operations.

These mines and the wealth that came with them was built on the backs of foreigners from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, along with locals who were forced into working the mines by the hut tax.

Before everybody complains “history is history”, these same areas are filled with foreigners many of whom are now unemployed due to mine closures or retrenchments.

This explains why the community of Khuma, near shaft 11, were so eager to assist, since many of the miners were community members and the community was aware of the economic plight of miners from being in mining families.

Another complexity is the role of force involved in recruiting and maintaining the work ethic of illegal miners. Some said they were kidnapped and forced into this work, while many of the foreigners involved were teenagers who likely knew no better and were guided – or forced – into this perilous situation by adults.

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While many communities have been terrorised by zama zamas, the guns and ammunition found on the leaders of the operation were also there to maintain forced labour and control people underground.

There is no question about whether illegal mining and uncontrolled immigration are problems that SA and its government need to face head-on.

The toll that economic stagnation has taken on the poor since the financial crisis is a large one and the desperation of our citizens for decent work, effective governance and community safety is palpable.

The solution to this is not to lose our humanity and give up on sound legal and constitutional judgment, but to improve our governance systems, properly resource our enforcement agencies and ruthlessly root out corrupt officials.

We need secure borders, but not at the expense of treating people like animals or disregarding their human rights.

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