
Stilfontein Operation, South Africa – 106 illegal miners have been extracted while 51 were confirmed dead from a gold mine in the North West on Tuesday.
After a two-day operation, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) confirmed the arrest of 82 miners. They face charges of illegal mining, trespassing, and breaking the Immigration Act. Two of the miners were also caught with gold-bearing material and have been charged with illegal possession.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said since August 2024 to Sunday 12th of January, over 1576 illegal miners were arrested, 1440 are still in custody, 121 illegal miners have already been deported.
“Forty-six people have already been found guilty of illegal mining, trespassing, and breaking the Immigration Act. They were sentenced to pay a fine of R12,000 or face six months in prison, which has been fully suspended for five years, as long as they don’t commit similar crimes again,” said Mathe. She added that the operations will continue on Wednesday, January 15.
.She said that since the Stilfontein operations began, the police have seized over 640 kg of gold-bearing material, 6.2 kg of refined gold, explosives, guns, and cash worth R52.49 million.
On Tuesday, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu visited the mine.
Mchunu said that the number of alive illegal miners pulled out from the mine is higher than the number of those declared deceased. He further said that those arrested, when investigated come up with different stories.
“Some of them say they were recruited from Johannesburg, promised nice jobs but they did not know where they were going while others say they are told to demand items from authorities as they are trapped underground and cannot leave on their free will because of threats ,”
Meanwhile, Mchunu shared that police are also looking into individuals who defended the human rights of trapped illegal miners. This comes after some of the arrested miners mentioned their names during questioning.