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An illegal mining shaft.
A total of 14 illegal miners, including a 14-year-old boy, have been arrested after they came to the surface at shaft 10 which is linked to shaft 11 in Stilfontein in the North West last night.
National Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says the miners chose to come out at night, assuming that police were no longer deployed at the shaft.
She says others ran back into the shaft as soon as they noticed the police presence.
Mathe says this shows that the illegal miners are not trapped but are choosing to stay underground.
“A total of 14 illegal miners resurfaced on Sunday evening at shaft 10 which is nearby to shaft 11 where all these illegal miners have been resurfacing from. So, it just goes to show that these two shafts are linked and that no one is trapped – they can actually come out on their own- they are just refusing to come out and resurface because they are avoiding arrest.”
Mathe says upon being interviewed, some of the illegal miners confirmed that there are heavily armed men inside the shafts who are not distributing food that is being provided to them because they do not want to stop the illegal mining operation.
“They do tell us that the food and water were confiscated by these heavily armed men and they are not giving it to these illegal miners – they are keeping it for themselves because they want to continue with the illegal mining operation.”
Mathe says all of those arrested are in SAPS detention cells.
“So, all 14 have been arrested and among them is a 14-year-old boy. So, all these are Mozambican nationals, and they have been processed and are in SAPS detention cells. Our operations continue – we stand static. We are aware that they were not expecting us to be there at that time of the night but our operations are 24/7.”
