Calls are mounting for the President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into all aspects of what happened at the Buffelsfontein Gold mine in Stilfontein near Klerksdorp in the North West.
This after the completion of a government sponsored rescue mission at the mine yesterday.
Two hundred and forty-six (246) alive illegal miners were retrieved from shaft 11 while 78 of them were declared dead between Monday and Wednesday this week.
Two of the parties in the Government of National Unity, GNU, the Democratic Alliance and GOOD Party are leading the campaign for the establishment of the commission.
Congress of the People (COPE) has joined the chorus placing the blame squarely on the doorstep of the government.
The Party’s acting National Chairman Pakes Dikgetsi said that they fully support the call for a commission of inquiry into what they termed a “Stilfontein tragedy”, which also led to injuries and loss of life.
“The gruesome and horrific pictures and information surfacing now show a government hell-bent on using starvation, dehumanisation, and other forms of violence, which have led to the slow and painful death of desperate people trying to eke out a living in the deepest pits of the earth,” said Dikgetsi
In addition, Dikgetsi said the failure by the GNU to grow an inclusive economy that creates decent jobs, has led the country to another gruesome massacre.
“Government has failed to restructure the inherited structural colonial economy of mineral extraction and exploitation by using cheap local labour and those sourced from neighbouring countries.
The GNU shamelessly perpetuates neo-colonialism at the expense of the majority of people,” Dikgetsi insisted
The police were not spared either, as Dikgetsi described its motto of “We Serve and Protect” in tatters.
“The government’s Operation Vala Umgodi has been exposed as a weapon to protect the interests of big capital, to whom they owe gratitude for installing them into power at the May 2024 polls,” remarked Dikgetsi.
The party has also called for the dismissal of several cabinet ministers, describing them as irresponsible.
“Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe, should have tendered their resignations.
Should their moral conscience not compel them to resign voluntarily, COPE will make a demand to the President to immediately sack them if he still has a conscience,” said Dikgetsi.
