Illegal workers stuck in South African mine should be handled ‘with dignity,’ bishop says

ACI Africa, Jan 7, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The hundreds of illegal miners stuck in a disused mine in Stilfontein in South Africa’s North West Province are human beings whose dignity should be respected, said Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. 

In a statement published Jan. 3, Sipuka, bishop of South Africa’s Mthatha Diocese, weighed in on the situation of the illegal miners who have been trapped since last November. 

“The Stilfontein illegal mining saga is too complex,” Sipuka said, alluding to reports that law enforcement agencies have blocked food and water supplies to the miners to force them to resurface so they can arrest them for illegally searching for leftover gold in the abandoned mine.

The fact that most of the illegal miners are reportedly foreigners is part of the complexity, the bishop noted.

The challenge of the situation of illegal mining, Sipuka said, “includes the question of legality and law when it comes to people entering the country illegally, as it is alleged that most of the illegal miners are foreign nationals.”

“Then there is a question of syndicates that are allegedly using poor people to make huge profits,” he said, adding: “There is [also] a question of the trapped illegal miners refusing to come out of the mines or being forced to stay underground. So, it is complex and requires research to assign responsibility for it.”

In his statement, the South African bishop said that the “complexity notwithstanding, the immediate moral question is how you deal with human beings created in the image of God in a way that respects their dignity.”

“There is no one-way solution; we must agonize about all the frustrations around it but devise a humane way of dealing with them,” he emphasized.

Reuters reported on Nov. 18, 2024, that over 1,000 illegal miners had resurfaced and, based on local police information, “hundreds could still be underground.”

The Reuters report quoted South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as saying: “The Stilfontein mine is a crime scene where the offense of illegal mining is being committed. It is standard police practice everywhere to secure a crime scene and to block off escape routes that enable criminals to evade arrest.”

Residents and human rights groups have reportedly criticized South African authorities for blocking food and water supplies to the illegal miners.

In his statement, Sipuka said the challenge of illegal mining in South Africa “involves the economic system which allegedly lets big mining companies get away with murder in the way they make maximum profits.”

As the big companies act with impunity, they destroy the environment and fail to improve “the lives of the people in the area of mining while at the same time clamping down on poor people trying to make a living,” Sipuka said.

The fact that the big companies fail to rehabilitate the mines adds to the challenge of mining in South Africa, the bishop said.

As a way forward, Sipuka urged relevant authorities in South Africa to “refrain from giving in to frustrations around this and end up disregarding the dignity of people, as expressed in some of the unfortunate utterings and actions of the government and the police.”

“While the solution is yet to be found, we need to be patient and listen to each other because human beings are involved in this situation,” he said. “I notice that the news focuses on the government, but nothing much is said about the mining companies who left these mines unrehabilitated and unclosed.”

“The possibility of introducing the use of old mines for economic and employment creation should be explored,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261429/illegal-workers-stuck-in-south-african-mine-should-be-handled-with-dignity-bishop-says