A system of pulleys and ropes installed by members of the South Africa Police Service is set up over an entrance to a disused gold mine shaft in Stilfontein, around 150 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg, South Africa, 17 November 2024. A South African court has ordered the lifting of a police blockade of the abandoned gold mine, in which people are illegally located. Police had blocked the mine in an attempt to force the people inside to exit. Picture: EPA-EFE/STRINGER
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has dismissed an application to seek final relief for the illegal miners still underground at Stilfontein, North West.
Civil organisation, the Society for the Protection of our Constitution, approached the court in a bid to force government departments, including the South African Police Service (Saps), to provide necessary emergency disaster relief to the illegal miners, such as food, water, medical supplies, blankets and, if needed, medical relief.
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The application also compelled the government departments to extract the zama-zamas that are alleged to be trapped underground.
The organisation accused the police of blocking entrances to the mine shafts, making it impossible for the illegal miners to resurface.
The Saps argued that it has never been in violation of any constitutional right to life and to dignity.
It denied claims that it had blocked any shaft or any illegal miner from exiting through any disused mine shaft. It added that evidence of this is the 1 239 illegal miners that have resurfaced in the past few weeks.
On Sunday night, 14 more illegal miners resurfaced at shaft 10, which is linked to shaft 11.
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“The Saps remains adamant that there is no illegal miner that is trapped underground and that they simply refuse to resurface because they are avoiding arrest,” argued the police.
“The Saps as a caring government department has also in the past two weeks allowed for limited food supply and water to be taken down to the illegal miners. Instant porridge, mageu and water were indeed taken down. Medical emergency personnel have also always been on standby to treat all those who resurface.”
In her judgment, Judge B Neukircher said the NGO failed to prove that the government’s response to the illegal miners was unconstitutional.
“The Society has offered no cogent proof to show that the respondents’ response to the situation is not measured, considered and proportional,” said Neukircher.
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“In my view, given that the Society has no expertise of its own in this area, has not engaged an expert to put evidence on this issue before court, and has not demonstrated that the rescue efforts can and should be conducted differently, the only conclusion to be drawn is that mine rescue operations are underway and all necessary efforts are being made to rescue the miners.
“There are also other exit avenues available to the miners to utilise, as there have been from the outset. This being so, the allegations made by the Society have been placed in context by the respondents and have been demonstrated to be incorrect.
“In my view and given the facts as set out [above], the issues of the constitutionality of the respondents’ actions are not engaged at as the application was premised upon facts which have been shown to be incorrect. Given this, the application must fail.”
The application was dismissed.
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