High Court orders South Africa police to end standoff with illegal miners

Published 11:30 AM ET, Monday November 18, 2024

Pretoria: A South African high court ordered police to end a standoff with illegal miners and allow emergency workers to gain access to a shaft where hundreds are believed to be trapped.

“Any miners trapped in the mine shaft shall be permitted to exit. No non-emergency personnel may enter the mine shaft,” the court said in a preliminary ruling.

However, South Africa’s Police Service (SAPS) has vowed to continue operations at abandoned mines in the country’s North West province until hundreds of illegal miners who have been hiding in the shaft voluntarily resurface. The decision on Saturday comes despite a court ruling against the standoff.

The miners have reportedly been underground in the mine in Stilfontein for a month, with police cutting off access to food and supplies in order to force them out and arrest them. The blockade is part of SAPS’ Vala Umgodi (Close the Hole) operation, launched late last year to combat illegal mining, which is blamed for South Africa’s declining gold production.

In a statement on Saturday, the South African police said it welcomes the court’s order, but it does not in any way prevent SAPS from performing its constitutional mandate.

“All those who resurface will continue to be assessed by emergency medical personnel on site, as has been the case. Those that are in good health will be processed and detained,” SAPS declared.

South Africa is one of the world’s leading gold-producing countries, holding nearly 30% of global gold deposits and 88% of all platinum deposits, according to official figures. However, the country’s mining output has been in decline for decades, owing in part to the activities of illegal miners, the majority of whom are said to be undocumented migrants from neighboring states, including Mozambique, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe.