The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said government’s incompetence and failure to manage the mining sector has caused the disarray experienced in the sector, and illegal miners seeking to make a living cannot be blamed.
Mathunjwa was reacting to remarks made by Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who told reporters that government would not attempt to rescue illegal miners stranded underground in Stilfontein, North West. Instead, the said government would “smoke them out”.
At a post Cabinet media briefing on Wednesday, Ntshavheni said government would not help criminals.
“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. We are not sending help to criminals. 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 or for the good intentions for the Republic. So, we can’t help them.
“Those who want to help them, they must go and take the food down there. They will come out, we will arrest them,” she emphasized.
The remarks have sparked a whirlwind of reaction, with some supporting the minister’s strong stance while others lambasted Ntshavheni, saying her words lack empathy to the families who have gathered to seek help for their miners.
Mathunjwa, speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika miners – even those who work for formal mining companies face peril everyday.
“Workers are being killed everyday even in the regulated mines, therefore there is no law. You can’t blame people who go and seek for livelihood because of this government that is so incompetent,” he said.
“Twenty-five kids have been killed in the spaza shops, killed by illegal foreigners who are opening spaza shops. The president cannot even declare it illegal to open a spaza shop to curtail this problem that we are facing in this country.
“This is a banana republic. This is a failed State,” said Mathunjwa.
The AMCU leader highlighted that striking mineworkers at Marikana in August 2012 were also labelled as criminals before 34 were killed in a confrontation with police.
“They called those workers criminals. I do not know now how they can be able to distinguish between criminals and workers. Thirty-four mineworkers were killed, fighting for economic emancipation by the very same government.
“Today they have the guts to say let’s smoke them out those criminals. The same government has made this environment very fertile for illegal mining.”
Mathunjwa said many mineworkers have been retrenched by mining companies and they could use their skills to train artisanal miners.
National Union of Mineworkers acting deputy general secretary Phillip Mankge criticised Ntshavheni, saying the minister’s remarks were inhumane irresponsible.
“As NUM we would like to categorically clear that we do not support the statement. In fact it is inhumane and irresponsible of the minister to utter such words when the people are trapped underground,” he said.
Mankge said for a very long time, people in South Africa have mined manually, before mining was highly regulated as it is now.
“What is wrong with African people when they want to go back to their primitive mining stage, to say we want to mine ourselves because we have abundance of gold, chrome and all sorts of minerals in South Africa,” he said.
Mankge insisted there is nothing criminal about what the trapped men’s activities.
On Wednesday, reported that the community of Stilfontein has rallied resources and manpower to intervene and rescue illegal miners – said to be in their thousands – who are stranded underground in disused mine shafts after police cut off the channels of much-needed supplies, including food and water.
In recent days, community members have been gathering, waving placards reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Free Our Brothers”, calling on government to intervene and rescue the stranded miners, colloquially referred to as zama zamas.
One community member who was sent by the community to go underground returned with feedback that there are thousands of people in dire need, with many feeling sick and dehydrated, while others have died.
Hundreds of the illegal miners have emerged in recent days, into the hands of waiting police and members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).
