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An aerial view of the Stilfontein mine.
Oversight bodies want government to account for what is happening in Stilfontein in the North West.
Over 1 000 illegal miners were arrested in the past two weeks, while more than a 1 000 are said to be underground.
This has exposed a challenge of illegal mining, which reportedly takes advantage of abandoned, disused mines.
The second phase of government’s retrieval operation started on Friday, with a crane being used to lower a camera underground.
Chairperson of the Provincial Legislature Portfolio Committee on Community Safety, Freddy Sonakile says, “Based on the work that I can’t share now that the police have shared with the committee, they say that there are people of interest, there is work that they are doing so we took comfort in the report. But we also wanted to understand the whole of all other departments because when there is a crisis like this, it needs a multidisciplinary type of team. So, we want to know what’s the role of health based on what the minister said that you’ll need prescriptions and whatever. They need to say in an instance like this because it’s not a normal instance what mechanisms they use to get that information.”
Stilfontein Mine | Health Minister on request for ARVs
