By OBAKENG MAJE
15 January 2025- The South African Police Service (SAPS) said during yesterday, a total of 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested for illegal mining in Stilfontein Mine. The police said 51 illegal miners were certified dead.
The national police spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said they have arrested 67 Mozambicans, 26 Lesotho nationals, 11 Zimbabweans and 2 South Africans.
“Operations will resume on 15 January 2025. From August 2024 until 12 January 2025, over 1576 illegal miners were arrested before the extraction operation commenced.
“Those arrested include 997 of the arrested are Mozambicans, 427 are Zimbabweans, 118 are Basotho nationals from Lesotho, 21 are South Africans, while one is from Malawi and another one from Congo,” she said.
Mathe further said 1540 illegal miners are still in police custody. She added that 121 illegal miners have already been deported, which include 80 Mozambicans, 30 Basotho nationals, 10 Zimbabweans and one Malawian.
“Over 46 illegal miners have already been found guilty of illegal mining, trespassing and contravening the immigration act. The court handed down a sentence of R12 000 or six months wholly suspended imprisonment sentence for five years on condition that they are not found guilty of similar crimes.
“Confiscated materials since the start of operations in Stilfontein (December 2023), include over 640kg of gold-bearing material, 6.2 kg of refined gold, explosives, firearms, and cash amounting to R52.49 million seized,” said Mathe.
The Guardian 