More than 50 bodies recovered from disused Stilfontein mine

A total of 51 dead bodies have been recovered from the abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein over the past two days.

The rescue mission, which began on Monday, 13 January, follows a recent High Court ruling ordering the government to extract the illegal miners, also known as zama zamas, occupying Shaft 11 of the Buffelsfontein gold mine.

Rescue

Phase 3 of the operation includes sending a cage down the shaft to bring the illegal miners back up to the surface.

The government-funded operation, estimated to cost R12 million, is expected to continue for 10 to 16 days.

Nationalities

Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said more than 100 illegal miners were brought up alive since Monday.

“On day two of operations, a total of 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested for illegal mining. 51 were certified dead.  

ALSO READ: ‘I don’t need to be pushed’: Mantashe on rescue mission of Stilfontein illegal miners

A breakdown of those arrested per nationality is as follows:

• 67 Mozambicans
• 26 Lesotho nationals
• 11 Zimbabweans
• 2 South Africans

“Operations will resume on Wednesday, 15 January 2025,” Mathe said.

#PoliceMinistry [STILFONTEIN #IllegalMining]
The Ministries of Police and Mineral Resources and Energy will visit Stilfontein today, 14 January 2025, following the commencement of operations aimed at ensuring that all illegal miners resurface. This follows the implementation of… pic.twitter.com/HW8H5zQtyH

— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) January 14, 2025

Arrests

Mathe said over 1,576 illegal miners were arrested before the extraction operation commenced.

“Those arrested include 997 Mozambicans, 427 are Zimbabweans, 118 are Basotho nationals from Lesotho, 21 are South Africans while one is from Malawi and another one from Congo. 1540 illegal miners are still in police custody.”

Deportations

She said 121 illegal miners have already been deported, including 80 Mozambicans, 30 Basotho nationals, ten Zimbabweans and one Malawian national.

“46 have already been found guilty of illegal mining, trespassing and contravening the immigration act. The court handed down a sentence of R12 000 or six months wholly suspended imprisonment sentence for five years on condition that they are not found guilty of similar crimes.

“Confiscated materials since the start of operations in Stilfontein (December 2023)  include over 640 kg of gold-bearing material, 6.2 kg of refined gold, explosives, firearms, and cash amounting to R52.49 million seized,” Mathe said.

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