Urgent court order prevents police from blocking mine

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has granted an order preventing police from blocking the unused mine in Stilfontein where more than 4 000 illegal miners were stuck underground, further ruling that the miners be allowed to exit. Legalbrief reports that the enormity of the saga – which has made headlines around the world – became evident when more than 50 exhausted miners last week emerged from the disused mine shaft, pleading that help be sent to many others who remain underground for fear of arrest. The application has been postponed to tomorrow, but in the interim Judge Brenda Neukircher ordered that, ‘the mine shaft in Stilfontein, that forms the subject matter of this application, shall be unblocked and may not be blocked by any person or institution whether government or private; any miners trapped in the mine shaft shall be permitted to exit; no non-emergency personnel may enter the mine shaft’.

The lifeline came after an urgent application by the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution following the government’s hardline approach against the miners whom it labelled as ‘criminals’. In the affidavit of the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution, human rights activist Abderrahman Regragui said that the government’s actions were illegal because they impugned the inherent dignity of the so-called illegal miners; disregarded their right to life, inflicted torture, disregarded their right to bodily and psychological integrity and impugned their right to healthcare, food, water and social security. The Sunday Tribune reports that it added that it violated the Constitution by saying they were illegal miners without first giving them a fair trial. ‘Unless this honourable court grants these prayers, there is a real danger that thousands of people will die of starvation triggered by torture,’ he said. The zama-zamas have remained underground for several months and since the police’s Operation Vala Umgodi was launched in Orkney this month, many have refused to resurface for fear of arrest. Police subsequently blocked the supply of food and water to compel them to emerge, but this has led to some deaths while others have fallen ill and are too weak to resurface. From Wednesday, residents in neighbouring communities have taken on the task of rescuing the illegal miners by using ropes to pull them out – which the police have permitted. The police themselves have declined to go underground due to safety concerns.

TimesLIVE reports that the matter was postponed to tomorrow for the respondents, the Ministers of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs, Police, Health and Mineral Resources & Energy to make their representations. ‘While the SAPS welcomes the court order, this does not prevent SAPS from performing its constitutional mandate,’ said spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said SAPS static deployment operations continue at all abandoned and disused mining shafts in the Stilfontein area where police appeal to all illegal miners to resurface. ‘All those who resurface will continue to be assessed by emergency medical personnel on site, as has been the case. Those that are in good health will be processed and detained. Those that require further medical care will be taken to hospital under police guard,’ Mathe said.