N West govt refutes claims mortuaries can’t handle Stilfontein bodies

The rescue of Stilfontein illegal miners is continuing.

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The North West Health Department has refuted allegations that its mortuary facilities in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality are full.

This comes after community members in Stilfontein expressed concern that some of the bodies of illegal miners retrieved from a disused mine in the past two days, were placed in pathology vehicles overnight.

With the rescue operation continuing for the third day, more than 100 illegal miners were retrieved while more than 50 bodies have been brought to the surface.

“We have identified at least four facilities is Klerksdorp / Tshepong which is the biggest in the province. As it is we do not have overcrowding as it is alleged, we are able to cope with the sizeable number of corpses that we are expecting. So, we want to dispel the notion that as the department we are struggling and we want to assure members of the public that we are ready, we will be coping with that. We have identified several hospitals, for instance, in the worst-case scenario we will be using Phokeng Forensic Pathology, we got other pathology facilities like Brits,” says the department’s spokesperson Lucas Mothibedi.

Statistics from day two of the operations.

#sapsHQ [UPDATE – Stilfontein] #IllegalMining
On day two of operations, a total of 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested for illegal mining. 51 were certified dead.

A breakdown of those arrested per nationality is as follows:
Mozambicans: 67
Lesotho nationals:… pic.twitter.com/KbiIVsrug1

— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) January 15, 2025