Macua takes fight to rescue trapped illegal miners to ConCourt
Image: Reuters/Ihsaan Haffejee
Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) has intensified efforts to save illegal miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein after an unsuccessful legal bid at the Pretoria high court.
This is after a recent ruling by the court dismissed the group’s earlier bid to force the government to rescue and provide relief to the remaining miners at Stilfontein.
The organisation has turned to the Constitutional Court, seeking urgent intervention in the crisis. The application also calls for immediate humanitarian aid during rescue efforts and seeks to compel the government to expedite operations to bring the trapped miners to the surface.
“To provide the artisanal miners at shaft 11 of the Buffelsfontein gold mine with humanitarian aid, including sufficient food, water and medication, pending the finalisation of rescue services and continue to allow the community to assist with the provision of food, water and medication.”
Macua also wants police minister Senzo Mchunu to allow Lawyers for Human Rights access to any miner arrested or detained after surfacing from shafts 10 and 11 at the mine.
So far, more than 1,500 illegal miners have resurfaced in Stilfontein. Several have been helped by local community members using a rope, while the police's Operation Vala Umgodi, or “close the hole”, which is aimed at combating illegal mining, continues.
According to a founding affidavit by Sabelo Mnguni, national administrator for Macua, at the centre of this case are the lives of hundreds to thousands of artisanal miners who have since about August 2024 been trapped underground under gruesome, undignified and life-threatening conditions.
Mnguni said the last communication received on December 24 2024 from one of the miners described the dire circumstances and claimed miners had resorted to eating human flesh.
He said the community and Macua have run out of the financial means to continue supplying humanitarian aid and to rescue the miners.
“With the financial means running out, it means the miners underground will return to the state they were in before the court order of [judge] Janse van Niewenhuizen was obtained, with no access to humanitarian aid, being food, water and medication, and no retrievals to the surface will take place.”
Mnguni said there was enough evidence before the high court showing the actions and inactions of the government in implementing Operation Vala Umgodi violated the constitutional rights of the miners.
He said the high court's judgment was procedurally and substantively flawed and Macua seeks urgent intervention to correct the “grave injustices”.
Mnguni said to date R118,973 has been raised on the crowdfunding website Back-A-Buddy to assist the miners. After the platform's 5% fee was deducted, the amount for disbursement stood at R113,024.
He confirmed the entire amount had already been disbursed. The contributions varied widely, with the largest single donation being R10,000 and the smallest R20. The average donation ranged between R100 and R500.
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