Court dismisses application by organisation fighting for zama zamas

The Pretoria high court has dismissed an application by the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution which sought to compel the government to provide emergency disaster relief to illegal miners who are underground at the Stilfontein mine, North West.

The organisation wanted the government to provide food, water, medical aid and blankets to the zama zamas and to also extract them from underground.

There are also other exit venues available to the miners to use, as there have been from the outset. This being so, allegations made by the Society have been placed in context by the respondents and have been demonstrated to be incorrectJudge Brenda Neukiricher

However, in a ruling on Monday, judge Brenda Neukircher said: “The Society has offered no cogent proof to show that the respondents' response to the situation is not measured, considered and proportional.”

“In my view, given that the Society has no expertise of its own in this area, has not engaged an expert to put evidence on this issue before the court, and has not demonstrated that the rescue efforts can and should be conducted differently, the only conclusion to be drawn is that nine rescue operations are underway and all necessary efforts are being made to rescue the miners.

“There are also other exit venues available to the miners to use, as there have been from the outset. This being so, allegations made by the Society have been placed in context by the respondents and have been demonstrated to be incorrect.”

While the Society argued that police had prejudged the guilt of the illegal miners and were using the power of arrest in an attempt to punish and harass them, the court said there was no evidence to show that the police were using the means of arrest to “torture and kill” the miners.

Police have since welcomed the judgment, saying they have always maintained that it has never been in violation of any constitutional right to life and dignity.

National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said police have never blocked any shaft nor blocked any illegal miner from exiting through any disused mine shaft. She said so far 1,239 illegal miners have resurfaced in the past few weeks.

“The SAPS remains adamant that there is no illegal miner that is trapped underground and that they simply refuse to resurface because they are avoiding arrest. This is evident with the 14 illegal miners who resurfaced last night at shaft 10 which is linked to shaft 11,” she said.

“They have confirmed what police have always been saying, that firstly there is no one trapped and that there are 10 heavily armed Basotho nationals who are guarding them and making them dig for gold. They claim the food and water that was taken down was all confiscated by these Basotho guards and none of them were allowed to eat or drink. They are instead forced to work for the food and water.”

Mathe said the SAPS was a caring government department which has also in the past two weeks allowed for limited food supply and water to be taken down to the illegal miners.

She also said medical emergency personnel have also always been on standby to treat all those who resurface.

“The SAPS is mandated according to section 205 of the constitution to prevent, combat as well as maintain law and order. It is against this objective that the SAPS’ role and objective for Operation Vala Umgodi is to prevent, combat and stop illicit mining activities that are taking place in the Stilfontein area.

“SAPS operations continue where static deployments are still in place to stamp the authority and for the rule of law to be upheld.”

Mathe said relevant authorities will soon provide an update on how far the rescue operations are.

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