Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has expressed regret over the deaths of illegal miners at Stilfontein in North West, where dozens of bodies of the artisanal miners have now been extracted.
A State-sponsored rescue process which begun in earnest on Monday had at the end of Tuesday brought 106 miners to the surface, and bodies of 51 deceased miners who perished underground.
In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday night, Mchunu said government never suggested that it would never rescue the scores of stranded miners.
“We have never ever been unwilling to assist, and I think I need to straighten that record. There is no way we would have repeatedly gone there, spoke about this and even the design of operation Vala Umgodi never suggested directly or indirectly that government is unwilling to assist peope to go out (of the mine),” said Mchunu.
In November, IOL reported that Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni insisted that government will not attempt to rescue illegal miners stranded underground in Stilfontein – but instead, government would “smoke them out”.
At a post-Cabinet media briefing, Nshavheni had vowed that government would not help “criminals”.
Asked about Ntshavheni’s sentiments, Mchunu said despite the remarks by the minister in the presidency, he had led a government delegation to Stilfontein a day after, in an effort to end the stand-off.
“What happened after that statement is that I was coincidentally scheduled as minister of police, together with deputy ministers of police, to go to Stilfontein to make an assessment, to evaluate what is happening and to see anything that we need to intervene on, or change. We were the only people who able to go there physically and engaged with all the stakeholders there," said Mchunu.
“Let us not assume that just because a statement was made, therefore it is a statement from the collective of government. Statements made after concretely looking at the situation, were not along those lines. We were saying let us collaborate, let us work together.”
The minister said as part of earlier interventions, the miners were allowed to resurface voluntarily, community members were allowed to hoist the stranded miners to the surface, government also set out to look for professionals who could help in rescuing the miners.
“Let us not go back to that (smoke them out) statement. Let us focus on what is being said now, and what we are doing now. That is what we are saying,” he said.
The minister said the miners who are coming out of the Stilfontein mines are being processed by several departments including health, home affairs and detained by police.
On Monday, IOL reported that activists in North West have roundly condemned government’s slow intervention to rescue hundreds of illegal miners who became trapped underground for months, after police descended on the area as part of operation Vala Umgodi.
Tensions between the State, activists and community members in Stilfontein have been running high, as the community members demanded that government rescues the miners. On the other hand, government insisted that the miners were not trapped but were simply refusing to come to the surface, fearing arrest.
North West spokesperson for South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), Mzukisi Jam on Monday said government had wanted the miners to perish underground.
“We are here to assist, that we finally get these people to resurface alive. We can never say thank you to the State for finally coming forth. There is nothing to be happy about here, where we are standing. But we appreciate that some of the families would get closure, and we are also going to make sure that those who have lost their loved ones at least get the opportunity to bury them,” Jam addressed journalists at Stilfontein.
“We should applaud the State for their initial plan to smoke these people out, it has worked. Thank you very much,” Jam said sarcastically.
President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), Mametlwe Sebei said the footage that has been received from the underground shafts, showing piles of dead and starving people, supports the narrative that a “massacre” has happened at Stilfontein.
He said the estimated 109 bodies which are yet to be hoisted from the mine shaft "we murdered by the police".
“What has transpired here has to be called what it is. This is Stilfontein massacre, because what the footage does is that it shows a pile of human bodies, of miners that died needlessly. This massacre, which is what it is, is really a bloody culmination of a treacherous policy that was pursued by the government, and in this police operation,” he said.