Reprieve for Stilfontein miners

RELIEF workers must be granted access to the Stilfontein mine where thousands of workers are believed to be trapped and in desperate need of medical attention and food, the North Gauteng High Court ruled yesterday.

The lifeline came after an urgent application by the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution following the government’s hardline approach against the miners which it labelled as “criminals”.

The application has been postponed to Tuesday but in the interim Judge Brenda Neukircher ordered that, “the mine shaft in Stilfontein, that forms the subject matter of this application, shall be unblocked and may not be blocked by any person or institution whether government or private; any miners trapped in the mine shaft shall be permitted to exit; no non-emergency personnel may enter the mine shaft.”

It is estimated that up to 4500 miners might have been trapped in the abandoned mines for several months as a result of a crackdown on illegal mining by police and soldiers known as Operation Vala Umgodi.

The zama zamas who go underground in the hope of finding any remaining gold and mineral deposits have apparently been blocked from leaving.

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In the founding affidavit of the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution, human rights activist Abderrahman Regragui said that the government’s actions were illegal because it it impugns the inherent dignity of the so-called illegal miners; disregarded their right to life, inflicted torture, disregarded their right to bodily and psychological integrity and impugned their right to healthcare, food, water and social security.

In addition it violated the Constitution by saying they were illegal miners without first subjecting them to a fair trial.

“Unless this Honourable Court grants the prayers prayed for there is a real danger that thousands of people will die of starvation triggered by torture,” he said.

Regragui’s affidavit also stated that the miners would suffer from dehydration because of a lack of water and also expressed concern for those with chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, and diabetes.

“In addition to the afore going, a lack of food and water invariably results in anxiety. With the changed weather more specifically it becoming warm and cold within a matter of hours, there is a risk that these trapped miners may not have warm clothes and will suffer from exposure. The alleged illegal miners risk dying through starvation and dehydration,” read his affidavit.

The government has taken flak for its stance and have even been accused of genocide in some quarters after Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the miners were “criminals” and would not be given assistance but instead the government would “smoke them out”.

“They will come out. We are not sending help to criminals. Criminals are not to be helped. Criminals are to be persecuted,” Ntshavheni said on Wednesday.

“We didn’t send them there, and they didn’t go down there for the good benefit or for the good intentions for the Republic. So, we can’t help them,” she said.

The Society for the Protection of Our Constitution was represented by attorney Yasmin Omar who said that the judge’s ruling was “cold comfort” for the families of those miners who had “succumbed to the elements, lack of medical care and were starved to death.”

Omar said that Stilfontein was in the same province where hundreds of miners were injured and killed by police in the Marikana massacre in August 2012.

Omar said her client, the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution, was a human rights organisation and its members had been inundated by complaints from a host of people who wanted the Stilfontein matter to be brought to the attention of the courts so that the miners could be helped.

Referring to Ntshavheni, she said it was concerning that ministers felt free to speak in that manner to a public who had lived through the horror of apartheid and alarming that none of them had distanced themselves from those comments.

“It appears now that there's a licence to oppress people and to have people be killed en masse because if you, if government found it acceptable to allow those people underground to die, not give them assistance, then it is nothing else other than murder. It's blood on your hands to stand back and say, if they don't come out, if they come out, we're going to arrest them, otherwise we're going to smoke them out and we're not going to give them assistance. They know for days there's no food or water, medication, blankets, or any of those emergency relief given to these people,” said Omar.

She said it was “noble” of South Africa to approach the International Court of Justice to seek relief for the people of Palestine while its own people were allowed to die underground.

“Because this is nothing else other than allowing a mass number of people to die underground. We've already had a body pulled out. If that is not an eye-opener to the government, then what is? And that is exactly why my client, the society, took this matter to court. We were fortunate that in our presentation of the matter…that the judge expressed acceptance that this matter is urgent and that emergency relief must be given to the people underground. And she ordered that the blockade of the entrance to that mine must be uplifted and that the emergency personnel must be allowed in.”

Omar warned that if any of the miners were arrested when they emerged, it would be illegal. She said the miners were from impoverished communities and some even from neighbouring countries who had hoped that they could make an income to support their families.

“So you're taking the poorest of the poor and you're oppressing them and you're telling them that because you are in this situation, we are going to punish you even more. You're going to die underground effectively. That's what we understand to be the government's stance.”

The respondents in the matter are the Ministers of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Minister of Police, Minister of Mineral Resources and Minister of Social Development.

The matter continues in court on Tuesday. The respondents could not be reached at the time of publication.