Since August there have been reports of people working and staying in an illegal gold mine. Police had cut off water and food access to the mine in hopes to push people out to be put under arrest. GIWASU Labour Union called this incident “the worst state-sponsored massacre since the end of apartheid.” 78 dead bodies had been pulled out of the mine, along with 246 survivors. Most of the survivors are from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and, Lesotho. They have been charged with illegal immigration, trespass, illegal mining, and other offenses. Local police report that they were not “allowing criminality to thrive.” So that was their reasoning for cutting off the water and food supplies. A volunteer Mzwandile Mkwayi stated he remembers when going up to the mine telling people, “we are here to help, please don’t die.” When he was going up to the mine to help retrieve survivors and bodies. He states that,” It will traumatize me for the rest of my life.” But is set in the reason why he did it. He talks about how he went into the mine because, “Those people are our brothers. We’re living with them.” Reuters reporters say they watch the cage and truck drive away. The rescue company’s CEO Mannas Fourie reported that the company did leave some dead bodies down in the mine due to the deep tunnels they were in.
This incident in another tragedy that will mark a land and souls around it. Many lives were lost and others altered for the rest theirs. Many people seemed to have gone to the mine to escape issues from where they used to live. Whether that be abuse, prosecution, or debt. They went to the mine thinking they could find work. Many of the people living in the mine were from all over Africa. Many human rights were violated.
Stilfontein authorities are facing a lot of backlash for their actions over the past couple months. The public is in outrage over how they treated the situation and believe they dehumanized the people who were in the mines. The company who was in charge of the rescues and bringing bodies up left some of the dead down in the tunnels, which makes those still down there seem less important. Like they weren’t enough to be laid to rest properly. Nobody should just be left forgotten to rot. I am interested to see how different actors in Africa react to this incident due to how many survivors were from all over.
In class we have discussed how human rights can cause severe outrange within the public, in more ways than one. When people get together change is made, so maybe there will be a change in how these survivors are treated. Given I don’t know if they all deserve going to jail. Another thing that is interesting, is the amount of people that came together to help search for the people in the mines. One thing that will always surprise me is how humans will banned together for people they consider family.