South Africa: Death of Miners in South Africa a Government Failure

Rights groups are criticizing South Africa’s government for failing to prevent what they call a “massacre” at the Buffelsfontein mine, after security officials cut off food, water, and other essential supplies to miners trapped underground and delayed a rescue operation.

On January 16, 246 miners were rescued from an abandoned mineshaft at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, where hundreds of unauthorized miners working illegally in the mines, known colloquially as zama-zamas, had been trapped for months. But the rescue operation also retrieved 87 bodies from the mine.

The standoff between police and miners began last November, when police surrounded the abandoned gold mine’s entrance, with the goal of forcing the miners to emerge and then arresting them. South African Police Service (SAPS) also reportedly cut off deliveries of food and water to the miners. Government minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni drew criticism for saying, “We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out.”

The recent rescue operation, conducted by nonprofit group Mines Rescue Services, began only after the High Court ordered the government to rescue the trapped miners.

November’s police presence at the Buffelsfontein mine was part of a national operation, Operation Vala Umgodi (close or plug the hole), aimed at combatting illicit mining across gold-rich South Africa, where companies close down unprofitable mines that are then entered by informal miners. Illegal mining in South Africa is a widespread, violent, and lucrative arm of transnational organized crime. Many zama-zamas, who are both South African and from other southern African countries, are coerced or intimidated into working underground. Some are children as young as 14.

One group, Mining-Affected Communities United in Action, has claimed the surviving miners are being denied adequate medical care.

In November, police commended law enforcement teams for blocking food delivery routes to miners trapped underground in Orkney, North West, forcing them to emerge from underground because of starvation and dehydration.

While the government has a responsibility to uphold the rule of law, it must simultaneously respect and protect human rights, including the right to life and prohibition on inhuman treatment. Police tactics of blocking essential supplies at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine to trigger fear of death and further jeopardize the miners’ lives, and the incendiary language used by public officials, fail to respect South Africa’s constitutional guarantees to which all are entitled. The surviving miners need prompt, adequate medical care, and the government should establish a commission of inquiry to conduct an effective, comprehensive investigation capable of holding to account those responsible for this tragic loss of life.

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Amu Mnisi, Associate, Africa

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