Tragic toll of illegal mining

The complexities and human tragedy associated with illegal mining in Africa continue to dog headlines with the saga of trapped miners in SA taking a gruesome turn, and reports of increasing hardship – including widespread sexual abuse of women and children – in other mining communities around Africa emerging, notes Legalbrief. In SA, the latest claims relating to the trapped miners is that many have resorted to eating the human flesh of their dead colleagues to survive. In the most recent legal challenge in SA, a submission to the Constitutional Court by human rights group Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua), claimed that illegal miners at the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein, North West, are resorting to cannibalism. A TimesLIVE report notes the submission details the conditions of allegedly hundreds of illegal miners still in the abandoned gold mine amid a police operation to remove them which began in August 2024. ‘The latest reports from those trapped underground indicate the situation has deteriorated further to the point that the some of the trapped miners have resorted to sustaining themselves with the flesh of those who have torturously tried to climb to (the) surface and eventually fell to their death, or who have succumbed to starvation,’ the submission said. ‘Reports indicate more bodies remain underground.’

The submission is part of Macua's appeal against a recent ruling by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), which dismissed the group’s bid to force government to rescue and provide relief to the remaining miners. Some miners have died and many more have exited the mine, where some tunnels were blocked and others continue to provide a link to surface supplies. The mine is up to 2km deep. Macua said the state’s refusal to rescue the miners contravenes its legal mandate, reports TimesLIVE. It said ‘hundreds’ remain trapped and face ‘imminent death and starvation’. ‘We have warned on several occasions that decisive action needs to be taken now,’ said Macua, which is led by Lawyers for Human Rights. Macua is asking the Constitutional Court to order the relevant state entities – as well as Buffelsfontein Gold Mine – to provide immediate humanitarian aid, including food, water and medication, within two hours of the court’s judgment.

The SA Government, however, insists illegal miners still occupying the mine are doing so voluntarily, notes TimesLIVE. ‘The notion that miners remain trapped solely due to police action is misleading,’ said the joint operations team set up to handle the crisis (NatJoints). ‘SAPS has implemented measures to secure the area and prevent further illegal activities, but designated exit points have been established to allow miners to surface safely and face due legal processes. The miners possess the means to exit independently as demonstrated by those who have surfaced. Government's stance is to uphold the rule of law. Thus, while immediate aid is not provided to facilitate illegal activities, measures are in place to ensure the safety and humane treatment of individuals who choose to come above ground,’ NatJoints said.

The court has also heard from three artisanal miners who recently emerged from the shafts. Macua submitted the affidavits of Clement Moeletsi, Setsoto Mashiane and Tshotleho Ntsokolo, notes the Daily Maverick. While Moeletsi’s affidavit paints a detailed picture of the situation underground in the months since the beginning of Operation Vala Umgodi, the other two affidavits alleged that miners have resorted to eating human flesh to survive. Mashiane, who was rescued on 25 December, deposed a short affidavit for the application. ‘I confirm that I was trapped underground at shafts 10 and 11 of the Buffelfontein Gold Mine. I was rescued on 25 December 2024 and confirm that prior to my rescue, some miners had resorted to consuming human flesh from other deceased miners in a desperate attempt to stay alive,’ the affidavit said. Ntsokolo’s affidavit is largely similar to Mashiane’s and also confirms that some miners are consuming human flesh to stay alive.

Moeletsi, who did not witness human flesh consumption directly, speaks of other conditions underground. He explained that he entered the mine on 24 July 2024, ‘driven by financial hardship and the overwhelming need to provide for my family’. Moeletsi says during the month before Operation Vala Umgodi (the police operation) started to affect the miners, he noted that conditions underground were difficult. ‘The environment was suffocating and devoid of natural light, the air thick and heavy,’ he said. When the police disrupted the food supply, Moeletsi said the situation underground deteriorated. ‘The abrupt termination of supplies left us utterly blindsided, as we had no warning or explanation for why the provision of food, water, medication and other basic supplies had suddenly stopped. The lack of communication added to the distress, leaving us in a state of confusion and desperation as we struggled to survive in increasingly dire conditions.’ Within a month, the miners became desperate, Moeletsi said. ‘People began eating cockroaches and mixing toothpaste with salt to create makeshift meals, extreme measures born out of sheer deprivation. The lack of food and safe drinking water left us with no viable means of nourishment. From September through October 2024, the absence of even basic sustenance was absolute, and survival became a daily battle against starvation.’ According to the DM, Moeletsi said he went without food and safe drinking water for nearly six weeks, leading him to become ‘physically and mentally drained’. ‘Moeletsi also told the court he saw many miners ‘wasting away’ underground, and argued that the deaths were preventable.

The government respondents have opposed the application, saying the case should not have been brought before the apex court at this stage. Kantoro Isaac Chowe, a Deputy State Attorney who deposed the affidavit on behalf of the government, said the case brought by Macua doesn’t have any exceptional circumstances. ‘The applicant attempts to obscure the numerous fatal flaws in its High Court application by relying on emotionally charged rhetoric, seemingly in the hope of securing direct access out of sympathy for the unfortunate circumstances the illegal miners have created for themselves,’ Chowe said. The DM notes he also pointed out that between 15 November and 18 December, Macau had brought four urgent applications to the High Court and argues that the NGO wants to rectify errors in its previous cases through the Constitutional Court case. Chowe also argued that Macua doesn’t make a strong case for the enforcement of rights under section 38 of the Constitution. ‘By presenting its case in such a materially deficient manner, the applicant has failed to address the fundamental prerequisites for obtaining a constitutional remedy under section 38,’ he says. Section 38 deals with the enforcement of the rights within the Bill of Rights.

The government continues to downplay the gravity of the situation, according to civil society organisations and survivors. This, claims a lengthy commentary on the issue in the Daily Maverick, follows a NatJoints statement that many of the illegal miners have voluntarily left the tunnels, suggesting they are capable of exiting without external assistance. ‘This trend indicates that these individuals have the capability to exit the underground tunnels independently. Their delayed emergence appears to be a tactic to evade arrest by law enforcement agencies,’ Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said. He added that claims suggesting the miners are trapped because of police action are inaccurate. While the SAPS has secured the area to prevent further illegal activities, exit points have been set up to allow miners to surface safely and face legal procedures.’ Mosikili also disputed claims of a food shortage underground. Contrary to reports that supplies ran out months ago, evidence suggests that the miners had access to provisions until recently, she said.

Civil society organisations and survivors paint a much darker picture, notes the DM. The Stilfontein Crisis Committee, consisting of community leaders, mining organisations and human rights activists, claims that the miners remain trapped underground, facing dire conditions because of a lack of food and resources. In stark contrast to the government’s claims of voluntary exits, survivor reports compiled by the committee allude to blocked exits, depleted aid supplies and desperate pleas for rescue from miners. The committee acknowledges that illegal mining is a crime, but stresses that this is not the reason the miners cannot exit. They are trapped in shafts 10 and 11, both of which are more than 2km deep and lined with smooth concrete walls. There are no stairs, ladders, or lifts in place in shaft 11, while only the remnants of a guard rail for the now-absent lift remain in shaft 10. The miners can only be pulled to the surface by community volunteers using a rope pulley system, but the rescue effort is slow, with only one miner able to be rescued at a time. ‘They are not refusing to co-operate with the police; in fact, they are begging to be allowed to come out. Those who have surfaced so far have been fully compliant with the police. Letters from underground have pleaded for urgent rescue, and there is no indication that the miners are unwilling to be held accountable once rescued,’ the committee said. At shaft 11, at the current rate, it would take roughly three months to extract all the trapped miners.

Meanwhile, a Zimbabwean NGO has said vulnerable groups such as women, girls and those with disability are being abused in many ways in mining communities where they live and/or work. According to New Zimbabwe, Margaret Chogugudza of Rural Young Women Support Network said several challenges were being faced, which require urgent amendment of the mining legislation. 'One of the major challenges is violence against women and girls. Given the fact that they are more vulnerable to violence because of their gender, this is something that is critical and that needs to be addressed,' Chogugudza said after attending a Mines and Mining Development Parliamentary Committee oral evidence hearing on the Ministry’s interventions on empowering these marginalised groups in the mining sector. She illustrated that this was one reason why women were not keen to participate in mining activities – for example, extreme violence by the so-called machete gangs. 'Even If you look at our politics in Zimbabwe, you will also see a few women participating because of the nature of the environment which is hostile/violent. 'Women face a lot of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. They get abused, sometimes drugged so that they can be managed easily. They can be forced into sexual activities while drunk without consent leading to unwanted pregnancies or being exposed to sexually transmitted infections. 'In Mutoko, where granite is being mined, women have spoken about sexual abuse as one of the most disturbing issues affecting them,' said Chogugudza.

Another major challenge has been limited access to finance and the health and safety risks. 'The equipment they use is not safe while the effects of the mining activities in the communities themselves are harmful to their health; such cases where chemicals are used.' She said water was not always readily available in these communities and this increased the burden of women and girls in terms of unpaid care work-fetching water. According to New Zimbabwe, Chogugudza said government was not doing enough although there have been some strides. 'The Mines and Minerals Act was put into place in 1960 to 1963, and you can see a lot of changes that have taken place in the extractive sector over time. We are talking of decades, and things have changed so the Act is not responding to the needs of this generation, to the needs of the nation and the current situation,' she noted.

Still in Zimbabwe, a tragedy has struck Ngwaro Village, located under Chief Mapanzure in Zvishavane, where two children drowned while swimming in an abandoned open-pit chrome mine, reports New Zimbabwe. The young victims have been identified as nine-year-old Tendai Hove and her 11-year-old cousin, Leeroy Makungwe. Village head Maxwell Moyo said: ‘The children had been sent on an errand but were drawn to the mine pits left behind from the extraction activities.’ According to village head Ngwaro, the mine is owned by a group of local investors operating under the ZimAsset framework with backing from Chinese investors. The mining activities have raised safety concerns among villagers as the mine is only 800m from the village. Moyo said they have always begged the miners to fill up the pits after exhausting the resource but the plea fell on deaf ears. He said mining operations in the area started last year. ‘The miners leave behind these open pits that fill with water during this season, attracting children to play in them,’ a villager lamented. ‘Mining is happening alarmingly close to our homes, and despite our complaints, nothing changes. The issue has become too political to resolve. We are left vulnerable, and our community, as well as our livestock, are at risk from these hazardous pits.’