CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s president is being called to order in an investigation into a police operation to combat illegal mining, but which finally came to fruition. leaving 87 miners to die underground as authorities tried to force them to surrender during a months-long standoff.
The tragedy of the abandoned gold mine near the town of Stilfontein began to unfold in August, when the police cut off the food supply for a while to miners working illegally in the mine tunnels.
This tactic was apparently intended to expel them, but instead caused dozens to die of starvation or dehydration, according to groups representing the miners.
A court ordered a rescue operation which was launched on Monday and over 240 survivors were evacuated this week in small groups in a metal cage, some of them very emaciated after more than five months below the surface. All survivors were arrested, police said.
Here is how the events unfolded:
Operation “Close the hole”
South African authorities have fought for years to prevent groups of miners from traveling to some of the gold-rich country’s 6,000 abandoned or closed mines to search for remaining deposits. Officials say South Africa lost more than $3 billion in gold to illicit trade last year.
Police forces launched an operation – dubbed “Close the Hole” – in late 2023 to crack down on illegal mining by surrounding several mines and cutting off supplies that were being sent by other members of the groups to the surface, so that minors come out on their own and be arrested.
The Buffelsfontein gold mine, scene of the disaster, became a police target in August, but it was not until November that the miners’ plight attracted the attention of rights groups. Activists warned that hundreds of miners were trapped up to 2.5 kilometers underground and in desperate need of food, water and other supplies.
A Cabinet minister laughed when asked if authorities would send supplies.
“We are not sending aid to criminals,” said Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, adding that “criminals should not be helped.” Criminals must be persecuted.
Starvation as a weapon
Unions and rights groups say authorities have used starvation as a weapon in Buffelsfontein. A group representing the miners said that not only did police cut off food for a time, but they and the mine owners also dismantled a rope and pulley system that was used to enter the mine. mine and bring down the supplies.
Police denied responsibility for the deaths and insisted the miners were not trapped but were able to escape through several mine shafts.
More than 1,500 people did so, police said, but others stayed behind for fear of arrest.
But rights groups say hundreds of miners were trapped inside the mine, too far from the shafts through which they could escape or too weak to make the dangerous climb.
Activists say authorities are also responsible for the long delay in launching a rescue operation, which only began on Monday after a court ordered the government to rescue the miners.
Who are the minors?
The miners, known as “zama zamas” – “scammers” or “chancers” in the Zulu language – are usually armed and are part of criminal syndicates, the government says.
They are often undocumented foreign nationals and authorities have said the vast majority of those who walked out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho and were in South Africa illegally.
Police said they seized gold, explosives, guns and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and defended their hard line.
Calls for the president to order an investigation
South Africa’s second-largest political party, part of a governing coalition, has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to order an investigation into what happened at the Buffelsfontein mine.
The investigation should also determine whether police “are prepared to use revenge and punishment as acceptable means of combating illegal mining”, the Democratic Alliance said.
Others wonder whether the authorities’ extraordinarily harsh action was because most of the Buffelsfontein miners were not South Africans, but undocumented migrants.
Ramaphosa has not commented on the disaster.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
