National commissioner Fannie Masemola said police maintained that their operation has never been in violation of any constitutional right to life and to dignity.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu says now free of the “burden” of the Stilfontein legal case, authorities were hoping the retrieval operation for the illegal miners will conclude soon.
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria on Monday dismissed an urgent application brought by the Society for the Protection of our Constitution.
The organisation sought to compel government departments including police to provide humanitarian aid such as food, water, medical aid and permit non-emergency personnel to go down in the 2km-deep shaft to haul out the illegal miners who have been there for a few months. In her ruling, Judge Brenda Neukircher said: “The Society has offered no cogent proof to show that the respondents’ response to the situation is not measured, considered and proportional. In my view, given that the Society has no expertise of its own in this area, has not engaged an expert to put evidence on this issue before court, and has not demonstrated that the rescue efforts can and should be conducted differently, the only conclusion to be drawn is that mine rescue operations are under way and all necessary efforts are being made to rescue the miners.
“There are also other exit avenues available to the miners to utilise, as there have been from the outset. This being so, the allegations made by the Society have been placed in context by the respondents and have been demonstrated to be incorrect.”
About 14 illegal miners including a 14-year-old resurfaced on Sunday night at the old gold mine shaft 10.
Mining experts are wrapping up phase two of an operation plan to bring the unknown number of illegal miners to the surface.
On reports that some of the illegal miners were heavily armed, Mchunu said their intelligence knew about this at an early stage, hence they were being strategic about the operation.
“Whether they are armed or not we want to get them out of there. We are free of the burden of the case and don’t want to be there at Stilfontein for long.
“Our plan is to remove unlawful mining rather than to repeatedly deal with illegal mining. When we say Vala Umgodi we mean to close all illegal mining activities. That is our plan. We will engage all stakeholders and decide on the next step further after our meeting with the experts that we are expecting in the week. They will give us more intelligence and assessment reports,” said Mchunu.
National commissioner Fannie Masemola said police maintained that their operation has never been in violation of any constitutional right to life and to dignity.
“The SAPS has never blocked any shaft nor blocked any illegal miner from exiting through any disused mine shaft, as is evident with the 1239 illegal miners that have resurfaced in the past few weeks. The SAPS remains adamant that there is no illegal miner that is trapped underground and that they simply refuse to resurface because they are avoiding arrest.
“The SAPS, as a caring government department, has also in the past two weeks allowed for limited food supply and water to be taken down to the illegal miners. Instant porridge and water were taken down. Medical emergency personnel have also always been on standby to treat all those who resurface,” said Masemola.
Cape Times
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