Cage to be sent down to rescue Stilfontein illegal miners

One of the community leaders in charge of an operation to rescue illegal miners at a disused mine in Stilfontein, North West, says they will communicate with those underground and urge them to move away from the tunnel as mining experts prepare a cage to rescue them.

“We requested to communicate with the people underground to move away from the rattles so that the rescue team can start to prepare a safer way to rescue them because there might be some rocks falling, so they need to move away,” community leader Thembile Botman told Sowetan on Tuesday.

He said mining experts were to start preparing from Tuesday and they were told it would take five to six days for them to build a cage that would assist in bringing them to the surface.

“The cage will go down. No-one will go down, no police, no community member will be going down, just the cage,” he said.

On Monday, North West community safety MEC Wessels Morweng reaffirmed their stance that no-one would be sent underground to rescue the miners.

“We are rescuing serious criminals, hard-core criminals, people who have committed serious crimes before. It is not as if people don't know that we are dealing with zama zamas,” he said.

“People who have raped people before, people who have murdered people before, so we are rescuing criminals here. We are careful and tactical about how we are going with this issue because [this is] the plan we have to commit to the public. We need to be mindful that we are dealing with people who can also intercept our plan and make sure it does not materialise.”

Morweng said they had a system that would assist them in verifying the number of people underground.

“The machine that is going to be sent will be a lift that is going to lift them, as simple as that,” he added.

Another community leader said they will approach the department of health to give the illegal miners antiretrovirals (ARVs).

On Monday, the illegal miners sent a letter to the surface which stated: “Sicela ama ARVs plz, abantu bayawadinga ngapha. Siyacela [loosely translated: We need ARVs, people need them here, please].”

After they were sent water using a rope, the illegal miners used the rope to send the letter up.

Johannes Qankase, a community leader, said they were going to ensure the men get their chronic medication. “We have decided to approach the department of health to ask that they assist us with ARVs that we can send underground,” he said.

Regarding sending ARVs to the men, deputy national police commissioner responsible for policing Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili said: “We had an interim order issued on Saturday that requested we give the necessary medication that will ensure the safety of life.

“If the ARVs are one of the requests, we have indicated it would be done in a co-ordinated manner. ”

Meanwhile, the Pretoria high court heard an application by the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution to argue for the rights of the illegal miners.

Human rights activist Abderrrahman Regragui argued in court papers the illegal miners had been denied access to basic supplies as part of an official strategy against illegal mining.

The respondents in the matter are the ministers of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, police, mineral resources and social development.

On Saturday, the Pretoria high court granted an order preventing police from blocking the shaft.

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