The hole in our heart of darkness by Andrew Donaldson

[Nat Quinn]

The hole in our heart of darkness by Andrew Donaldson

Andrew Donaldson writes on the fate of the “zama zamas” of Shaft 11, Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, near Stilfontein

A FAMOUS GROUSE

THE Marikana massacre was considered to be the most lethal use of force by South African security forces since the 1976 Soweto riots: 34 men shot dead by SAPS members when they opened fire on a group of striking miners on 16 August 2012 at the Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg in North West Province.

The world was horrified, with commentators suggesting the killings marked a dramatic shift in the country’s political dynamic. Cyril Ramaphosa, then the deputy president, described the incident as “probably the lowest moment in the short history of a democratic South Africa”. This was somewhat hypocritical considering that, as a Lonmin director, it was he who had called on security forces to break the “dastardly criminal” strike at the mine.

Unsurprisingly, lawyers for the murdered miners and their bereaved families suggested that Ramaphosa could face charges in the international criminal court. As it turned out, there was little chance of that. No-one, in fact, has been criminally charged for the killings.

In 2022, on the 10th anniversary of the massacre, Daily Maverick reported that the president, a former mining union leader, “remains the ultimate symbol of the state’s disdain towards the victims and their families”. The DM’s correspondent, Greg Nicolson, noted, “Marikana might have changed little, but everything changed after Marikana.”

Be that as it may, here we are again. Scores of dead miners in a dusty corner of North West province, their deaths allegedly due to callous, heavy-handed police action. Disgracefully, the state’s response has been as heartless and disdainful as ever.

 There were no firearms this time, no shooting of men in the back as they fled. The victims were now starved to death. They were “zama zamas”, the informal or illegal artisanal miners who scratch away deep underground in once-functional mines to eke out a living.

It’s a dangerous activity. Using picks and buckets, zama zamas scrape away in search of what little gold is left in these disused and unstable shafts. They often remain underground for months at a time and rely on help from contractors outside who pull them to the surface with ropes for a fee and send down supplies for their survival.

This may explain the general lack of sympathy for the zama zamas. They are widely regarded as criminals and, because many are foreigners, they’re deemed unworthy and undeserving of help. Watching this story unfold over the past few weeks, I’ve been struck by the indifference to their plight and, at times, sheer hostility to any suggestion that the state take steps to rescue them. Not with their taxes, they fume on social media, along with the familiar nonsense about illegals stealing jobs.

In August last year, police moved in on the disused Buffelsfontein Gold Mine near Stilfontein as part of a national SAPS/SANDF operation called “Close the Hole” or “Vala Umgodi” in Zulu, which was launched in December 2023 to end illegal mining.

The Buffelsfontein mine comprises multiple shafts or entryways several kilometres apart underground. Initially, the police announced they were going to wait until the men surfaced from the mine’s shafts and then arrest them. However, in September, they sealed off some exits, claiming the miners could emerge from others.

But, according to activists, these entryways were too far apart for this; the police had, in effect, trapped the men deep underground with no food and water for months.

It’s not known exactly how many miners were working the mine. Some accounts put the number as high as 4 000. TimesLIVE has reported that, since October,  about 1 000 men had surfaced as a result of police action.

In November, police doubled down on efforts to block food and water being lowered down the shafts to the remaining miners. With many now starving, and others apparently falling to their doom down shafts while attempting to climb to the surface. Appeals to be rescued were ignored.

Presidency minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni controversially told journalists that month that government would not be assisting the thousands of miners trapped underground.

“You want us to send help to criminals, honestly? We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped, criminals are to be persecuted. We didn’t send them there and they didn’t go down there for the good benefit and good intentions of the republic,” she said.

Ntshavheni’s comments had appalled some of her colleagues in government; others however echoed her apparent disregard for human life. Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe, for example, has dismissed concerns about human rights.

Visiting the mine earlier this month together with police minister Senzo Mchunu after Pretoria High Court-ordered rescue work finally got underway, Mantashe told the media that illegal mining was an “economic attack” by foreign nationals, and said that the illicit trade of precious metals was estimated to have cost the economy R60 billion in 2024.

As the bodies were brought to the surface, along with emaciated survivors, Mantashe was questioned as to who should be accountable for the deaths underground. He replied, “If you voluntarily take a risk, how humanitarian is that? You lay on the rail line and get run over, can we treat that as a human rights issue? Illegal mining is not different from that; it’s not different from [cash-in-transit] heists.”

Little wonder Mantashe and Mchunu were forced to flee the area along with their entourages as angry Stilfontein residents hurled insults at them. Mchunu, specifically, was labelled a dog, according to News24.

Members of the community had Brennan addressed by Lawyers for Human Rights attorney Mametlwe Sebei who told them that a charge of mass murder would be opened relating to the deaths of the miners. As he put it, “We shouldn’t mince our words and speak in forked tongues. We should call it what it is. These ministers are here at the scene of the crime. Hundreds of miners have died underground in what can only be a blood culmination of their treacherous policies of the police operation, planned and executed with the approval at the highest echelon of the state, including the Cabinet.”

Mchunu then reportedly attempted to address the crowd. “Look,” he was quoted as saying, “we came here to listen and see what you wanted to say. If you are preparing for a [criminal] charge, go on. We are leaving you here. You are rude.”

“Voetsek!” residents shouted back. The insults that followed came on thick and fast.

Prior to the court’s ruling, police had downplayed the gravity of the miners’ predicament, claiming that many of the zama zamas had left the underground tunnels voluntarily, suggesting that assistance in their rescue is unnecessary. They further allege that the miners’ “delayed emergence” is an apparent attempt to evade arrest.

While local community members and activists have acknowledged that illegal mining is a crime, they stressed that this wasn’t the reason the miners haven’t surfaced. They were trapped in two areas of the mine, shafts 10 and 11. Both are more than two kilometres deep and lined with smooth concrete walls. Shaft 11 has no stairs, ladders or lifts. The only possible means of reaching the surface independently was in shaft 10 — the remnants of a guard rail for a now-absent lift.

To reach shaft 10, they said, miners in shaft 11 would have to navigate narrow tunnels for at least three days, crawl through toxic water, and risk getting lost. At shaft 10, they would then face a two kilometre vertical climb to the surface. This would take another three days.

Before setting out, miners would have to tie harnesses and ropes to themselves. When they were too exhausted to continue climbing, they would lash themselves securely to the guard rail in order to get some sleep to regain their strength. If anyone fell, the men below would be knocked off the guard rail and would fall to their death.

The miners could only be pulled to the surface by a rope pulley system operated by volunteers. This would be unbelievably slow, with only one miner rescued at a time.

Police ended their rescue operation last Wednesday, and said they believed they had brought out all survivors and retrieved all the bodies of the dead. At least 78 miners were confirmed dead, and 246 survivors had been rescued. The victims were suspected to have died of starvation or dehydration, activists have said, although no official cause of death has been released for any of them.

The death toll is however thought be higher, as local volunteers had reported retrieving nine bodies before the official operation got underway. There have also been reports of an unconfirmed number of bodies and survivors being brought out sporadically during other community-led rescue efforts since last year.

Bizarrely, police deny any culpability in the deaths of the men, and instead suggest that blame be directed at a Lesotho national, James “Tiger” Neo Tshoaeli. The BBC reported that, in a statement released on Monday, police claimed Tshoaeli is the alleged “kingpin” accused on controlling the illegal mining at Buffelsfontein. As such, it was he who allegedly “hoarded and kept food away from other miners”.

It further emerged that some police officers had helped Tshaoeli to escape after he had been pulled from the mine. Police commissioner Patrick Asaneng has warned that “heads will roll” once an internal investigation revealed who had assisted in the escape. A manhunt for Tshaoeli has since been launched.

The hell below

To date, no government official has expressed any degree of empathy or regret at the illegal miners’ plight. Theirs has been a harrowing, nightmarish experience, as affidavits before the Constitutional Court reveal. (These can be read here.)

Conditions were so desperate underground, according to rescued miners, that those still trapped underground had resorted eating the flesh of the dead in order to survive.

This is the story of one of those survivors, Clement Moeletsi. He had been rescued on 9 December after being trapped underground at shafts 10 and 11. This was almost five months after he’d entered the mine. Conditions were grim, it was a “suffocating” environment, devoid of natural light, and the air thick and heavy, Moeletsi said in his affidavit.

But the situation deteriorated dramatically when police operations began.

“The abrupt termination of supplies left us utterly blindsided, as we had no warning or explanation for why the provision of food, water, medication and other basic supplies had suddenly stopped. The lack of communication added to the distress, leaving us in a state of confusion and desperation as we struggled to survive in increasingly dire conditions.

“People began eating cockroaches and mixing toothpaste with salt to create makeshift meals, extreme measures born out of sheer deprivation. The lack of food and safe drinking water left us with no viable means of nourishment. From September through October 2024, the absence of even basic sustenance was absolute, and survival became a daily battle against starvation.”

Moeletsi said he went without food and safe drinking water for nearly six weeks.

“To survive, I resorted to drinking underground water, which had a strong chemical taste. While it kept me alive, it came at a cost. I suffered severe headaches, abdominal pain and what I suspect were symptoms of stomach ulcers, brought on by the water’s contamination.”

Moeletsi’s affidavit also revealed the plight of other miners, many of whom were “wasting away” underground. He argued their deaths were preventable.

“As days turned to weeks without food, their movements became sluggish, as if every step was an unbearable effort. The fat that once cushioned their frames disappeared, leaving bones painfully visible beneath thinning skin. Faces hollowed out and limbs looked impossibly frail.”

Their deaths came without “great commotion”, he said, but “just a quiet surrender as if their bodies had finally given up … It was not an illness that killed them. It was starvation. A cruel, drawn-out death that consumed them piece by piece. This is what I saw underground. This is what we lived through, and this is why, respectfully, no one, despite what they have done, should ever endure such suffering again.”

Some miners, he said, had fallen to their deaths when they tried to climb to the surface. “Those who fell plummeted to the very bottom of the mine, a place so remote and dangerous that recovery was nearly impossible without specialised equipment. Their remains were left at the base of the mine, a haunting reminder of the lengths people went to to fight for survival.”

In November, Moeletsi’s affidavit continued, miners received word that food was being delivered to the entrance of Shaft 11, and they made their way there through “treacherous” underground passageways. The area around the shaft was crowded and, when food was eventually delivered on 16 November, fights broke out.

“What I witnessed in shafts 10 and 11 will stay with me forever, a testament to the cruelty of neglect and the resilience of those who fought to survive despite impossible odds. During the food distribution, another artisanal miner and I counted roughly 900 people waiting in line for a share. The sheer number of people, coupled with their weakened and emaciated state, made the scene harrowing. Although we counted 900 people, I believe there were still other artisanal miners scattered throughout different levels of the mine.”

Due to his weakened state, Moeletsi was selected for rescue from shaft 11 by fellow miners. “The relief of being taken out of the mine was overwhelming, but the toll of the experience still weighed heavily on me.”

Moeletsi’s account has been supported by affidavits from two fellow miners.

source:The hole in our heart of darkness – OPINION | Politicsweb

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