BRITS POS – STILFONTEIN - Rescue operations at shaft 11 in Stilfontein commenced on Monday, 13 January with the retrieval of 35 illegal miners.
“This follows the clearing of the site over the weekend and the arrival of the 45 tonne Mobile Rescue Winder crane that can reach a depth of 3000 meters underground,” says Makhosonke Buthelezi, DMRE spokesperson.
On Monday, regrettably of the 35 illegal miners, nine corpses were recovered in Monday’s operation and pathology services have removed them from the scene.
On Tuesday, a total of 106 illegal miners were retrieved alive and arrested for illegal mining and 51 were certified dead upon retrieval.
A breakdown of those arrested per nationality is: Mozambicans: 67, Lesotho nationals: 26, Zimbabweans: 11 and South Africans: 2.
Following the deaths of these illegal miners, SAPS is investigating allegations that the food that was sent down, was allegedly limited and kept from these illegal miners as well as allegations of abuse and cases of assault, following videos that emerged from underground showing some illegal miners being beaten and tortured.
Since August 2024 to Sunday, 12 January 2025 the following was recorded:
Arrests and Confiscations:
*Over 1 576 illegal miners have been arrested before the extraction operation commenced. Those arrested include the following nationalities: 997 of the arrested are Mozambicans, 427 are Zimbabweans, 118 are Basotho nationals from Lesotho, 21 are South Africans while one is from Malawi and another one from the DRC Congo.
*1540 illegal miners are still in police custody.
*121 illegal miners have already been deported which include 80 Mozambicans, 30 Basotho nationals, 10 Zimbabweans and one Malawian.
*46 have already been found guilty of illegal mining, trespassing and contravening the immigration act. The court handed down a sentence of R12 000 or six months wholly suspended imprisonment sentence for five years on condition that they are not found guilty of similar crimes.
*Confiscated materials since the start of operations in Stilfontein (December 2023) include over 640 kg of gold-bearing material, 6.2 kg of refined gold, explosives, firearms, and cash amounting to R52.49 million seized.
