The government rescue operation of illegal miners at Stilfontein in the North West province has officially started. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has made available R12 million for the operation. This is pending the ruling of the Constitutional Court on whether the responsibility lies with the government or the owners of the disused mine, Buffelsfontein Gold.

By mid-afternoon, the first seven illegal miners were brought to the surface by the rescue team.

The rescue effort initially started by the community in October last year to retrieve illegal miners from underground has officially been taken over by the government.

The community managed to retrieve 35 illegal miners and 10 bodies while, a total of 1 570 illegal miners have resurfaced at Margaret shaft and shaft 10 in Stilfontein.

The NGO, Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) and community leaders blame the government for the deaths of what they say, are of over 100 illegal miners.

“What then the mine owners and the police did was to basically dismantle the pulling system and that meant for 13 days these miners did not have food, did not have water, did not have medication. But also, nobody could be able to rescue them, nor could they, of course, escape or get out of the mine by any other route. The result was a deadly trap that a Stilfontein Shaft 11 became, and as a result of that, we today have an estimation of 109 of the miners who we must say were murdered by the police,” says Mametlwe Sebei from the Lawyers for Human Rights.

Some believe the deaths could have been prevented, if the government had acted timeously.

“What happened here was totally unnecessary. Unnecessary in a sense that we started calling for assistance, for help actually, begging for help before there was even one person who died. But the response that we got was that the state was actually intending to smoke these people out,” says Mzukisi Jam, Sanco North West Secretary.

Desperate family members accused the government of gambling with the lives of their loved ones.

“In a way, I’m not happy because it’s long overdue. They have gambled with the lives of our brothers, especially my brother. I didn’t have a choice because we have been knocking on many doors asking and pleading with them that can you please assist us. The only thing that they could tell us is to smoke them out. They didn’t care whether they come out alive,” says Zinzi Tom, relative of one of the illegal miners.

Community leaders refuted claims that some of the illegal miners died after they were attacked by others underground. They say the results of a post-mortem done on one of the illegal miners, proved that he died as a result of hunger and dehydration.

“Up to so far, we believe they have died of starvation. The postmortem that has been done to the dead bodies that are already on the surface proves that people died of starvation. So, indeed, all of them. They died of starvation,” says community leader Thembile Botman.

The DMRE and the Minerals Council South Africa have confirmed that they will bear the cost for the retrieval of the illegal miners.

Video: Stilfontein Mine – Retrieval of illegal miners: Thabiso Moss updates