Miners continue to surface at Stilfontein

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