The Pretoria High Court dismissed an application by the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA), to compel the state to immediately commence rescue and resurfacing operations and provide food and humanitarian aid to trapped miners in
Stilfontein.
The application was heard on Friday, the 20th December 2024.
MACUA’s Magnificent Mndebele, said in a statement this “amounts to nothing less than a death sentence for those underground. It is a fundamental denial of their right to life.
While the court has affirmed the miners’ right to receive humanitarian aid and acknowledged that they are trapped with no alternative source of sustenance, it may have erred in failing to affirm the state’s duty and obligation to protect this right. “
MACUA also said the mine in Stilfontein stopped operating in 2015 and almost 10 years later, it remains unrehabilitated.
“We will not rest until justice for the marginalised and excluded is realized in Stilfontein, and we demand that the process of amending the MPRDA be fast tracked with measures that ensure greater justice for communities and workers.”