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The GOOD Party condemns the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Stilfontein.

The mine saga has dragged on for over 3 months and it is estimated that over 500 zama zamas remain underground. 

It is unlikely those trapped are the masterminds of the country’s illegal mining syndicates but rather the poor and vulnerable who are doing their best to make a living in the current tough economic climate.

Government has failed to tackle the underlying socio-economic issues that contribute to illegal mining, like unemployment and the lack of economic opportunities.

But instead of recognising their role in the matter and stepping in to assist, government has dug in their heels behind the shield of upholding the rule of law.

There is a reason South Africa’s Constitution is lauded as one of the most progressive in the world. Outside of the Basic Human Rights it gives to its citizens, Section 11 provides for the Right to life of everyone. 

This Right has been tested before and supported, with both documented and undocumented immigrants given free access to antiretrovirals following the onset of the HIV crisis, no questions asked. 

Our public hospitals care for illegal immigrants just as they do South Africans when required to.

It is astonishing that our government is acting in such an anti-constitutional manner disregarding the Human Rights of hundreds of miners who are stuck almost 2,000 metres below the earths surface in Stilfontein. 

We are already aware of several deaths in the Buffelsfontein mine shafts, and the response to this has been entirely inhumane. 

Further to the blatant disregard for the Human Rights of the miners, Government is perpetuating a humanitarian crisis.

Not only have the South African Police Service (SAPS) been of no assistance, but they have blocked the rescue operations that previously saw many of the miners being rescued, dismantling the pulley structure built by the community volunteers. 

Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe has refused to allow the mobile rescue winder owned by his department to be used, while SAPS claims it should be an industry-backed rescue mission. 

This is in direct contradiction of both the Constitution’s prescripts and the fact that industry has shown more willingness to assist than SAPS has.

Already some of the miners who have resurfaced have been teenagers, who were likely brought into this context with little idea of any illegality involved. 

The first responsibility should be to provide lifesaving supplies and rescue plans, only after which any legal processes can take place. 

While the Constitutional Court has agreed to hear the matter, the time it will take is likely to result in the death of more, if not all, the surviving miners. 

We call on the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister and the Police Minister to work with the teams on the ground to do their ethical and constitutional duty, so these individuals are no longer forced to choose between starvation and eating the rotting bodies of their dead. 

This is first and foremost a humanitarian crisis, and with no further action and a continued disregard for the miner’s Human Rights, the situation will become one of the largest humanitarian failures in democratic South Africa’s history.

Issued by Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General