By Akani Nkuna
The GOOD Party has urged Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe and Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to work with the community and NGOs in Stilfontein to ensure that the illegal miners are treated humanely.
It said they should not be forced to choose between starving and resorting to eating the bodies of deceased miners in the Buffelsfontein mine shaft.
GOOD Party secretary general Brett Herron said in a statement that the predicament at Stilfontein “is first and foremost a humanitarian crisis, and with no further action and continued disregard for the miner’s human rights, the situation will become one of the largest humanitarian failures in democratic South Africa’s history”.
He said it was shocking that the government was behaving in such an “anti-constitutional”, way ignoring the human rights of the hundreds of miners trapped nearly 2000 metres beneath the surface.
The party has urged the government to demonstrate its commitment to upholding the country’s renowned progressive Constitution by extending fundamental rights to all individuals, including the illegal miners.
“There is a reason South Africa’s Constitution is lauded as one of the most progressive I the world. Outside of the basic human rights it gives to its citizens, Section 11 provides for the rights to life of everyone,” said Herron.
“This right has been tasted before and supported, with both documented and undocumented immigrants given free access to antiretrovirals following the onset of the HIV crisis, no questions asked.”
Furthermore, Herron said that those trapped were likely innocent, impoverished individuals desperately trying to survive amidst South Africa’s economic hardships, rather than the kingpins behind the country’s illegal mining operations.
“Government has failed to tackle the underlying socio-economic issues that contribute to illegal mining, like unemployment and the lack of economic opportunities.
“But instead of recognising their role in the matter and stepping in to assist, government has dug in their heels behind the shield of upholding the rule of law,” he added.
This is not the first time the government is being criticised for its inaction. Community group Macua has approached the Constitutional Court to force the government to provide humanitarian assistance.
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