Fourteen Mozambicans have been arrested in South Africa after resurfacing in an illegal mine shaft where hundreds of other people are believed to be hiding, local police authorities announced on Monday.
“The arrestees are all Mozambicans,” the police said in a statement in which they clarified that “a total of 14 illegal miners resurfaced yesterday [Sunday] night, proving that they are not trapped, but simply refuse to return to the surface”.
In the same statement, the police said that not all of the illegal miners who resurfaced from the pit were arrested because “others ran back into the pit as soon as they saw the officers,” they added.
Security forces have been stationed for three weeks outside the abandoned Stilfontein gold mine, about 150 kilometres southwest of Johannesburg. They intermittently prevent local residents from feeding the miners inside to force them out.
The operation, which has so far led to the arrest of more than 1,000 people, according to the authorities, has sparked protests, with some fearing that the miners, known as “zama zamas” (“those who try” in Zulu), could starve to death or freeze underground.
Thousands of illegal miners, often from neighbouring countries, work and live in difficult conditions in mineral-rich South Africa.
One of them, who spoke to the France-Presse (AFP) news agency after resurfacing in the mine shaft on 17 November, said he had spent two months underground.
Some officials said the illegal miners did not deserve help, including the Minister of the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who said: “We will expel them”.
It is not yet known how many people are underground in Stilfontein – a member of the local community estimated the number at 4,000, but the police later said it was probably in the hundreds.
Some associate the “zama zamas” with an increase in crime.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who labelled the “zama zamas” a “threat” to the economy and security, defended the police strategy of blocking supplies to force the miners out.
“So far, more than a thousand miners have come to the surface and have been arrested,” Ramaphosa said last week, describing the Stilfontein site as a “crime scene”.
“Those in good health are being detained and will be treated according to the law. Those who need medical attention will be taken to hospital under police supervision,” he added.
When illegal foreign miners are arrested, they face deportation from South Africa to their country of origin after appearing in a local court.
It is estimated that around 14,000 suspected illegal miners have been arrested in seven provinces of the country since December 2023.
Lusa
