Bench-Marks Foundation calls for formalisation of artisanal mining

Non-governmental organisation, Bench-Marks Foundation, has attributed the escalation of illegal mining in the country to what it terms government’s failure to formalise artisanal mining.

This follows the deaths of 78 illegal miners at a disused mine in Stilfontein in the North West.

More than 1 500 other illegal miners have been coming to the surface from a shaft at the mine since November last year.

A government-led retrieval operation has since been concluded.

Lead Researcher at the foundation, David van Wyk, says high unemployment levels are central to the problem.

“The high levels of unemployment in South Africa are central to the problem of why people risk their lives going underground in very dangerous situations to go for gold and other minerals underground to sell on the surface. The Bench-Mark Foundation together with the Legal Resource Centre and the National Association of Artisanal Mining worked for three to four years in making inputs to that national policy on artisanal mining and we have hope that policy be released by now and implemented.”

Meanwhile, an illegal miner who went underground in July last year and has opted to remain anonymous agrees with the foundation.

“These shafts surrounding Khuma will assist us because we depend on them, we pay our children’s school fees through this illegal mining in order for them to survive as well. So, those shafts are important for us and I think they must be legalised so that we can survive because when they close them, it is going to be something else.”

Calls for artisanal mining licences

Meanwhile, more than 900 suspected illegal miners have been arrested in Limpopo between December 2024 and January 2025.

They were arrested during police’s operation Vala Umgodi across the province.

Mining forums in the mineral-rich Sekhukhune District are calling on government to issue them with artisanal mining licences.