The saga of illegal miners reportedly trapped underground at the Buffelsfontein mine in North West has been in the media since November.
Yesterday I went there to see for myself and to try and sort through the mass of contradictory reporting and find out what's really going on.
Reports of the number of illegal miners vary from one or two hundred to thousands. The high numbers would not be without precedent, as similar numbers were reported over the last few years in Welkom mines before operations to seal them were largely successful.
About two months ago police cut the food and equipment supplies to those underground in an effort to force them to the surface. Scores of them have surfaced and been charged.
There seem to be three reasons that those still in the mine remain there:
They do not wish to come out and be arrested, despite the fact that the penalties ae relatively light, they would lose gold they have already mined.
They are being prevented from leaving by gang bosses who are known to use coercion and effective slavery for underground work forces.
There is no easy exit mechanism. Those wishing to leave must climb a perilous route out via girders and ropes. If they are weakened by hunger this may lead to them falling to their deaths.
Police on the site are focused on guarding the shafts and arresting those who emerge. There is no sign of any effort to extract those who wish to come out but cannot do so.
South African mine rescue skills are among the finest in the world. The snag seems to be that in order to conduct an exit operation for the zama zamas, the specialist rescue effort would have to be funded and officially approved.
Such funding and approvals do not seem to be in place. If these efforts are underway, they have not been disclosed and the question would be why it has taken so long to do it.
The DA believes illegal miners are destructive of the industry and surrounding communities. They drive away investment and steal state revenues. Some of them are dangerous and violent criminals. Despite all this, mass deaths from starvation and accidents of these miners need to be avoided.
That is not how a democratic South Africa, subscribing to human rights, should behave.
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Such an occurrence would also be a public relations disaster and reduce the credibility of the government's fight against illegal mining.
It seems there is no overall strategy to bring this saga to a close.
The DA believes somebody in government should take charge, coordinate the efforts of the various departments, and mount an effort to rescue those illegal miners who want to get out but can't. The cost of such an operation would be partially covered by the alternative of merely leaving police in place until there is nobody more who can emerge by themselves.
There seems to be a leadership vacuum. Somebody must step up. Now.
