By Akani Nkuna
Conditions for illegal miners at Stilfontein in the North West appears to be rapidly deteriorating.
Although Lawyers for Human Rights on behalf of Mining Affected Communities United Action (Macua) was successful in getting an interim court order on Sunday for NGOs and communities to provide humanitarian aid to the miners, many of whom are children, it had reportedly not been sent underground by Monday evening.
Earlier in the day, another 21 minors resurfaced. They have been coming up in small groups daily since the police blocked their access to food weeks ago. Hundreds of miners are still believed to be underground, with them fearing arrest or being ordered to stay to put by heavily armed men.
The police say 12 of them are Mozambican and nine are Zimbabwean. They were met by heavy police presence and arrested at the scene and taken in for further processing.
On Sunday, 10 miners, of whom nine were Mozambican, were apprehended.
Macua’s application highlighted the perilous conditions faced by “artisanal miners”, following the action taken by the state. The interim ruling orders the Police Minister, community safety MEC and others to “provide food, water and medication to the trapped miners within two hours (14h45, 01 December 2024) of the court order being handed down”.
Macua and Lawyers for Human Rights are heading back to the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday. The court will consider additional relief sought by the applicants, including allowing community rescue efforts to continue and declaring SAPS’ use of starvation and dehydration as a tool against communities unconstitutional.
Macua executive director Christopher Rutledge told Inside Politics that they were confident that their application would be successful as they were presenting facts and new evidence.
Last month, the court dismissed an application by the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution, saying they had no expertise of their own when making their arguments, not had they demonstrated that rescue efforts could and should be conducted differently.
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