Johannesburg — At least 78 illegal miners have died in the Stilfontein gold mine in South Africa after the police blocked the entrance to the mine in August 2024 to force them to leave the site and surrender to the authorities. Since August last year, when the South African authorities decided to close the mine to counter widespread illegal mining, which, according to the Minister of Mines, has cost the South African economy more than $3 billion in 2024 alone, nearly 2,000 illegal miners have come out of the mine so far.
Those who came out of the mine described a devastating situation. The mine site consists of a vertical tunnel that goes about 2.6 km underground. When the police blocked access, the miners were left without food and water supplies that had been lowered into the shaft by their accomplices. Dozens of people starved to death; the stench of their corpses mixed with the smell of the living, who had not been able to wash themselves for months. Among those who surrendered to the police was the alleged leader of the illegal miners, a Lesotho national known as “Tiger”.
However, he was not found in the security cell of the police station where he was detained. An escape that raises suspicions of complicity among the police. The escape of “Tiger” fuels suspicions of a real criminal network that has been looting some of the country’s 6,000 abandoned gold-rich mines for years in search of remaining deposits. These are mines that have been abandoned by large companies because their industrial exploitation is no longer profitable. The Bishop of Mthatha, Sithembele Anton Sipuka, commented on the drama in Silfontein in early January and said in a statement that “the Silfontein illegal mining saga is too complex”.
“It involves the economic system which allegedly lets big mining companies get away with murder in the way they make maximum profits while destroying the environment and not improving the lives of the people in the area of mining while at the same time, it clamps down on poor people trying to make a living,” he lamented. “It further raises questions about companies not rehabilitating the mines and getting away with it. It includes the question of legality and law when it comes to people entering the country illegally, as it is alleged that most of the illegal minors are foreign nationals. Then, there is a question of syndicates that are allegedly using poor people to make huge profits.
Then, there is a question of the trapped illegal minors refusing to come out of the mines or being forced to stay underground. So, it is complex and requires research to assign responsibility for it,” said the bishop. According to the Bishop of Mthatha, while the media’s attention is focused on the government’s actions, “not much is said about the mining companies who left these mines unrehabilitated and unclosed”. “The law should hold them accountable. In addition, the possibility of introducing the use of old mines for economic and employment creation should be explored,” he says. “Police, while handling the present crisis of trapped people who are only foot soldiers, should also make their investigations about the alleged syndicate behind all this and have them prosecuted,” concludes Bishop Sipuka.
