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Police visibility at the Stilfontein mine area.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu says Operation Vala Umgodi had serious shortcomings as it didn’t consider the socioeconomic challenges in communities.
Mchunu was briefing stakeholders in Stilfontein in the North West. He says the vast majority of illegal miners are from outside the country and there are continuous engagements with the affected embassies.
“Why would people just want to do something unlawful or is it poverty at the root cause? What else it is? Is it unemployment? And therefore, in addressing this unlawfulness, let us also go to the root cause. It was an omission. Remember this is an activity of human beings and one of the things that human beings are characteristic of, is errors. Whoever was involved in crafting Operation Vala Umgodi consciously or unconsciously, whether they were aware or unaware, they also committed an error,” says Mchunu.
Stilfontein locals in North West who attended a feedback session by the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, have indicated their frustration with the slow pace of government’s plan to assist illegal miners underground.
Close to 1 300 illegal mine workers have come to the surface since mid-August after Operation Vala Umgodi was intensified in the area and food and water supplies cut off.
Community leader Johannes Qankase, they just want to the miners saved.
“Our main objective and our main interest is for people to be safe. I am just amazed, minister, you said why do we seek to save people. When we came together as the community, we volunteered to resurface these people with a rope. Yet, you as a government said to us we must stop that process, you will come with experts that will do things because ours are very risky and dangerous. It has been two weeks now, what we want to see is people being saved, only,” says Qankase.
Stilfontein Mine | Mchunu briefs the media:
