Parliament’s Joint Portfolio Committees on Police, Mineral and Petroleum Resources have welcomed the Departments efforts to recoup state incurred monies in a rescue mission to retrieve illegal miners who were trapped at the disused shafts 10, 11 and Margaret owned by Buffelsfontein Gold mine in Stilfontein near Klerksdorp in the North West.
About R3,5m was spent to rescue 240 illegal miners who were brought up alive, and 93 corpses of trapped miners from the mine shafts between January and February after the police had for months blockaded it.
Most of the rescued and arrested illegal miners were illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries, including 93 dead bodies that were retrieved from underground.
Speaking on YouFM News Hour, the Co-Chairperson of the Joint Committees, Mikateko Mahlaule, revealed that the Buffelsfontein mine is owned by a Chinese company.
“The owners are in China, and they own 74% (which makes them the majority shareholders) and some within the country who holds 26%.
We asked why was that mine not used to an extend where it opened a gap for zama zamas to enter and mine what was left of it.
We were told that we have been looking for majority shareholders and they were running away but we eventually found them,” said Mahlaule.
In addition, Mahlaule said that the company, through its Ambassador in South Africa committed itself to rehabilitate and reimburse the state for all the monies spent on the operation that was not meant for the state, but the company that neglected its responsibility of rehabilitation and just left without doing anything.
“Remember they’re not refugees, they were running away from responsibilities.
But their country, which is the Chinese government through the Ambassador found them and told them to return to the country to fix their mess they left, so it’s not a battle per se.
They’ll come back and do what they are supposed to do.
Otherwise they’ll have to face their country because the relations between the South African government and China are so strong that they wouldn’t want to be embarrassed by this one issue that is negligence from their own people,” explained Mahlaule.
The committee was also told that there are 6 100 derelict and ownerless mines in the country, which are all breeding grounds for illegal mining and related criminal activities.
