Stilfontein – Rescue operations ordered by the high court in Pretoria have begun at abandoned 2 km deep shafts in Stilfontein, North West.
At least 26 illegal miners have been hoisted to the surface using a small cage that carries up to six persons at a time.
The rescue, which began on Monday, (13 January 2025), also retrieved nine bodies.
Authorities said the rescue mission at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein would be conducted between 6 am and 6 pm and was expected to last at least a week.
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However, community leader Thembile Botman said the government should have long assisted to rescue the illegal miners – better known as Zama Zamas.
For several weeks, the police operation Vala Umgodi has prevented supplies of food and water from being sent down the shafts by locals using ropes precariously fastened on rocks atop the surface.
On Friday, (10 January 2025), the high court ordered Mine Rescue Services to begin operations to rescue “illegal miners” trapped underground in Shafts 10 and 11.
This ruling followed an urgent application brought by Zinzi Tom, whose brother, Ayanda Tom, was among the hundreds of miners trapped underground since July 2024.
In her ruling, Judge Ronel Tolmay said: “We do not want a situation where this will be marked as the darkest point in our history.
“On my watch, no one will go without food. From a constitutional basis, it is immoral not to get water and food.
“It can’t be that more people die.”
Hundreds of illegal miners – better known as Zama Zamas – are thought to be stuck underground in appalling conditions made worse by the smell of decaying bodies.
The artisanal gold miners, who have surfaced, have described the unfolding horror underground, where a shortage of food and water has been compounded by ailments and polluted air.
A handwritten note brought to the surface a few days ago made a harrowing plea for masks to help the miners breathe and cope with the putrid smell of decaying bodies.
A video, which has not been verified, doing the rounds on social media shows dozens of emaciated miners crammed in a tunnel appearing to be in distress.
The cage that is being lowered – once every hour – into the shaft has been mounted with a surveillance camera to further establish conditions underground.
The SA government has revealed that the rescue mission will cost about R12 million.
Meanwhile, Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) has described the situation as “a massacre”.
MACUA accuses the government of lying about the possibility of exiting at shaft 10, further accusing the government of depriving the miners of food, medication, and water for two weeks.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Manashe insists the artisanal miners were involved in criminal activity.
Speaking to a TV station, Newzroom Afrika, the minister said: “One of the things that surprises me in South Africa is when South Africans place human rights at the centre of criminal activities.
“That worries me because it suggests that we are preaching tolerance for criminality
“MACUA should be careful not to promote criminality and to say we must protect criminality against justice and fairness.”
