Supplies yet to reach illegal Stilfontein miners after interdict

Suspected illegal miners underground at two shafts in Stilfontein, North West may be in for a longer wait for much-needed aid — despite another court ruling in their favour.

This as four more miners, also known as zama zamas, resurfaced on Monday morning.

On Sunday, the Pretoria high court ordered the North West community safety and transport MEC, police and mineral resources minister, along with several other respondents, “within two hours of the court order being handed down, allow community members, charitable organisations and interested parties to, in an orderly manner, provide humanitarian aid including water, food and medication to the artisanal miners trapped underground at shafts 10 and 11 of the Buffelsfontein gold mine”.

This is pending the finalisation of the application, which will be heard on December 5 in the same court. The latest application was brought by community-based organisation Mining Affected Communities United in Action.

Community leader Thembile Botman said the aid had not been sent underground yet, and appeals for aid were ongoing.

“We’re still busy fundraising or requesting anyone who can assist with aid to come forward,” he said on Monday.

On whether they had engaged with police yet following Sunday’s ruling, Botman said: “We haven’t engaged with them directly but my comrades are at the shaft right now planning to speak to them. But it’s a direct order.”

Botman said they welcomed Sunday’s interim judgment as they awaited the final outcome from Thursday’s hearing.

“Fortunately in SA we are governed by the law and the constitution and if a court of law says this is right, I respect that,” he said.

This is the second time the issue of the provision of humanitarian aid in Stilfontein has made its way to the Pretoria high court. The same court last week Monday dismissed an application brought by the Society for the Protection of our Constitution seeking to compel government departments, including the police, to provide emergency disaster relief to illegal miners underground in the form of food, water, blankets and medical relief.

The organisation was also granted an interim interdict prior to the final ruling.

The miners had been in a 2km-deep shaft for weeks when police pounced on them at exit points during Operation Vala Umgodi, which aims to combat illegal mining.

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