1,000 Illegal Miners Arrested In South Africa

Police in South Africa have arrested at least 1,000 illegal gold miners in the northeast of the country.

According to police, those arrested are undocumented migrants.

Donald Mdhluli, a spokesperson for the South African police in the Mpumalanga province, where the week-long sweep took place, told the media that more arrests could be made because as he said, there are still illegal miners underground.

“As they are coming out, they have been taken,” Mdhluli was quoted by the AFP as saying.

The police operation, which started on Monday, targeted clandestine mining near the village of Barberton, close to the borders of Eswatini and Mozambique.

The Sheba Mine is owned by Barberton Mines who said in a statement: “Earlier this year there was outcry from the community and employees when Barberton Mines retrenched workers as the mine was unprofitable and facing closure. Now we know the reason why!

“Food and supplies have been getting to a thriving illegal mining world underground, which had to be stopped, hence this intervention with the police and mine security. This message needs to be spread and illegal mining will not be tolerated,” it added.

“About 1,000 illegal miners who are also illegal immigrants have been arrested,” Mdhluli said, calling it a joint operation between mine security and the police.

He said that “there are no fatalities recorded so far”.

The arrests come less than a year after a similar operation conducted near the town of Stilfontein, west of Johannesburg, where at least 90 clandestine miners lost their lives before their mines were definitively shut in January.

As in the Stilfontein operation, police near Barberton surrounded the illegal mine to prevent supplies from entering, forcing those inside to come to the surface.

Source:Africa Publicity