Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, together with Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga, will this morning (Friday 15 November) visit the North West Province in response to the government’s ongoing operation to address illegal mining in the Stilfontein area, where a significant number of illegal miners remain underground.

The visit comes amid ongoing efforts by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), under Operation Vala Umgodi, to ensure that illegal miners who are still underground return to the surface safely. Despite multiple calls, numerous illegal miners have yet to resurface.

The visit seeks to interact and engage law enforcement agencies on the ground, engage the North West government and mining leadership, including other relevant stakeholders and to further assess progress on the ground, challenges and work out appropriate responses, the SAPS said in a statement.

To date, 1 173 individuals involved in illegal mining have surfaced and been apprehended at Stilfontein.

In line with safeguarding lives, the SAPS and the SANDF have allowed for water and food to be delivered to those underground so that they can safely resurface.

The police and other safety officials will remain in place in the North West until all illegal miners resurface and are arrested. The SAPS, in a statement, called on the illegal miners to resurface so that they can get relevant help or aid, including any medical attention that may be required.

“We appeal to the community in the area to allow the police space to do their job. The SAPS will not allow criminality to thrive,” the police said.

Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, was earlier reported as saying government would not assist illegal miners trapped underground.

She was answering media questions after presenting a statement on the 6 November Cabinet meeting. “We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped, criminals are to be persecuted. We didn’t send them there and they didn’t go down there for the good benefit or intentions of the republic so we can’t help them,” she said.

It is believed there are around four thousand illegal miners – widely known as zama zamas – underground in abandoned and disused mine shafts in the Stilfontein area of the North West province, who have been trapped since 18 October when law enforcement cut supply routes.

National Police Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said police will not be going underground to rescue illegal miners at Stilfontein as they could be heavily armed and pose a serious risk to officers. She also said the actual number of illegal miners at Stilfontein could be between 350 and 400, not 4 000.

One decomposed body was brought to the surface on Thursday, Mathe said, adding that pathologists were at the mine in Stilfontein. The body was retrieved by community volunteers.

Anti-illegal mining operations continue elsewhere, meanwhile, with the SAPS reporting the apprehension of 17 suspects during operations conducted at Protea mine, Magaliesburg, on Tuesday, 12 November.

The police seized illegal mining equipment and goods including: alcohol, energy beverages, oxygen cylinders, an air compressor, scrap generator, a laptop, and bags containing gold bearing material as well as a jackhammer and generators.

Last week, Vala Umgodi teams sealed a ventilation shaft at Beatrix Mine Shaft 4 after intercepting contraband goods dropped down the shaft several times. Teams recovered suspected gold bearing material weighing at 129 kilograms, an air gun, knife and a small cellular telephone.

Collaboration between the SAPS and private security saw 18 underground illegal miners arrested at Kopanang Mine. The suspects indicated that they ventured into illegal mining through the help of several ‘bosses’ from Khuma near Stilfontein.

The Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster this week said that from April 2023 to date, 4 067 suspects have been arrested on various illegal mining related charges, while the National Intervention Team, deployed to deal with illegal mining and the Eskom energy crisis, has arrested 67 illegal miners and seized mining equipment worth R180 million and coal worth R12 million.