Activists in North West have roundly condemned government’s slow intervention to rescue hundreds of illegal miners who became trapped after police descended on the area as part of operation Vala Umgodi.

Tensions between the State, activists and community members in Stilfontein have been running high, as the community members demanded that government rescues the miners. On the other hand, government insisted that the miners were not trapped but were simply refusing to come to the surface, fearing arrest.

North West spokesperson for South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), Mzukisi Jam on Monday said government had wanted the miners to perish underground.

“We are here to assist, that we finally get these people to resurface alive. We can never say thank you to the State for finally coming forth. There is nothing to be happy about here, where we are standing. But we appreciate that some of the families would get closure, and we are also going to make sure that those who have lost their loved ones at least get the opportunity to bury them,” Jam addressed journalists at Stilfontein.

“We should applaud the State for their initial plan to smoke these people out, it has worked. Thank you very much,” Jam said sarcastically.

President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), Mametlwe Sebei said the footage that has been received from the underground shafts, showing piles of dead and starving people, supports the narrative that a “massacre” has happened at Stilfontein.

He said the estimated 109 bodies which are yet to be hoisted from the mine shaft "we murdered by the police".

“What has transpired here has to be called what it is. This is Stilfontein massacre, because what the footage does is that it shows a pile of human bodies, of miners that died needlessly. This massacre, which is what it is, is really a bloody culmination of a treacherous policy that was pursued by the government, and in this police operation,” he said.