Federal chair of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille has called for empathy in the handling of the issue of trapped illegal miners - said to be in their thousands - at disused mines in Stilfontein, North West.
Debate has been raging across South Africa, after Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that government would not attempt to rescue illegal miners stranded underground. Instead, she said the government would “smoke them out”.
At a post Cabinet media briefing in Cape Town, Ntshavheni insisted government would not help criminals.
“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. We are not sending help to criminals. 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 for the good intentions for 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, we will arrest them,” she emphasised.
The remarks have sparked a whirlwind of reaction, with some supporting the minister’s strong stance while others lambasted Ntshavheni, saying her words lack empathy for the families in North West who have gathered to seek help for the desperate miners.
Commenting on X, responding to a Newzroom Afrika post, Zille said the situation should be treated with empathy as it affects people’s lives.
“Come on. The minister is talking about human beings here. People facing a perilous life-threatening calamity must be rescued,” said Zille.
“Arrest and prosecute them for breaking the law. But don't leave them to perish in horrific circumstances. What happened to Ubuntu?”
Some of the people who have sons, husbands, uncles and neighbours trapped underground, claim that the miners have not resurfaced for months, fearing arrest in police’s ongoing Operation Vala Umgodi.
Members of the SA Police Service, supported by the SANDF have descended on the area and sealed off channels where community members supply food and water to the miners underground, allowing them to continue mining illegally, and indefinitely.
A community member who volunteered and went underground this week, returned with feedback that some of the trapped miners have died while others are very sick. The community representative claimed around 4,500 are underground, fearing arrest if they resurface.
Earlier on Thursday, IOL reported that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said government’s incompetence and failure to manage the mining sector has caused the disarray experienced in the sector, and illegal miners seeking to make a living cannot be blamed.
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa, speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika said miners – even those who work for formal mining companies – face peril every day.
“Workers are being killed every day, even in the regulated mines, therefore, there is no law. You can’t blame people who go and seek for livelihood because of this government that is so incompetent,” he said.
“Twenty-five kids have been killed in the spaza shops, killed by illegal foreigners who are opening spaza shops. The president cannot even declare it illegal to open a spaza shop to curtail this problem that we are facing in this country.
“This is a banana republic. This is a failed State,” said Mathunjwa.
The AMCU leader highlighted that striking mineworkers at Marikana in August 2012 were also labelled as criminals before 34 were killed in a confrontation with police.
“They called those workers criminals. I do not know now how they can be able to distinguish between criminals and workers. Thirty-four mineworkers were killed, fighting for economic emancipation by the very same government.
“Today they have the guts to say let’s smoke them out, those criminals. The same government has made this environment very fertile for illegal mining.”
Mathunjwa said many mineworkers have been retrenched by mining companies and they could use their skills to train artisanal miners.
IOL