Police say extortionists are demanding part of the money allocated for specialists to retrieve the Stilfontein illegal miners who are underground.
Extortionists have made demands for some of the money set aside for the extensive operation being set up to extract illegal miners stranded underground at Stilfontein in North West.
Groundwork is being done by specialist mine rescue workers, using heavy machinery to set up their operation to rescue the illegal miners, colloquially referred to as zama zamas.
However, North West police spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone told journalists at the site that the operation to rescue the trapped illegal miners – said to be in their thousands - has been targeted by extortionists.
“We are happy with what is happening, we are still maintaining that we are working with community leaders but it is a unfortunate that we seem to be experiencing a bit of a challenge, but this is something we will deal with as the police.
“As you know, we had contractors working here, clearing the site and doing whatever that needed to be done. We are aware that some or one of the people that were here yesterday demanded something like 30 percent, meaning that we are starting to see issues relating to extortion,” said Mokgwabone.
The rescue operation was initiated after Police Minister Senzo Mchunu visited the area. Mchunu led a high-level government delegation to Stilfontein where the zama zamas have been stranded underground, in disused mines for months after police and soldiers arrived in the area as part of Operation Vala Umgodi.
Mchunu has also enlisted services of experts in mine rescue, and indicated that he wants all the stranded miners brought to the surface within a week.
Earlier on Friday, IOL reported that in asking for a final order that government must be compelled to assist the miners “trapped” underground, the lawyer acting for the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution said that using tactics such as starvation to try and force them out is tantamount to brutality.
“All we ask is for government to comply with the Bill of Rights,” Yasmin Omar on Thursday told the Gauteng High Court.
Judge Brenda Neukircher reserved judgment in the application for the court to urgently come to the aid of the miners who are said to be still trapped underground.
The court on Saturday issued an interim order, that pending finalisation of the application, the mineshaft must be unblocked and must not be locked by any person or institution, whether government or private. Any miners trapped in the mine shaft shall be permitted to exit.
The parties were back in court this week, with government and the police asking the court to turn down the application.
Advocate Bongi Lukhele, who argued on behalf of the Minister of Mineral Resources, once again stressed that the miners were not trapped, as they could surface from an alternative shaft that had been opened.
IOL