While food is said to be now slowly trickling underground for the miners trapped at Buffelsfontein goldmine in Stilfontein, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, on Tuesday night found that the police were in breach of the court order which allowed the community, volunteers, and charitable organisations to provide essentials such as food and water to the miners.
This is after a community-based organisation called the Mining Affected Community in Action (Macua) yet again approached the court following Sunday’s ruling that the SAPS must for now allow miners at Stilfontein to immediately be supplied with food, water, and medication from the community and charitable organisations.
Macua, in an affidavit handed to court on Tuesday night, said in spite of the SAPS being served with the court order, officials stationed at the Stilfontein Gold Mine refused to comply with the terms of the order.
Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen said the SAPS is indeed in breach of her order made on Sunday regarding the type and amount of food and other aid to be delivered to the miners. She ordered that the Sheriff be allowed to assist with the implementation of the order.
The applicant said that a community member physically served a copy of the order on a SAPS colonel who accepted receipt of the order but refused to acknowledge receipt of the court order in writing.
Judge Janse van Nieuwenhuizen was told that the order was also served to several other officials stationed at the Stilfontein Gold Mine; yet, they refused to comply with the terms of the court order.
Sabelo Mnguni, national administrator of Macua, said in an affidavit that the SAPS placed arbitrary limitations on the quantity of food that community members intended to lower down to the trapped miners, as well as the number of times food may be sent down.
Furthermore, certain essential food items, including maize meal, canned fish, and soup, were not allowed to be lowered down at all without any explanation.
There is no accurate information regarding the number of miners trapped underground, and therefore the limitations on the quantity of food and the number of times food may be sent down are unreasonable, Mnguni said.
“These restrictions are both unreasonable and unlawful, and go against the plain language of the court order.”
In addition to restricting certain food items, the SAPS also refused to permit the delivery of paracetamol and batteries for the miners' headlamps, the court was told.
The applicants, in the main application, detailed the dangerous conditions underground; thus, the need for medication and batteries is justified, Mnguni said.
According to him, only about 104 packets of instant porridge and ARVs were sent down. The likes of paracetamol and water were not allowed to be taken down to the miners.
The applicant’s attorney, Thato Gaffane, spoke to General Olifant of the SAPS by informing him of the court order and its contents.
Gaffane conveyed to General Olifant that the court order does not grant the SAPS or the government respondents any discretion to impose restrictions on the type or quantity of humanitarian aid.
“Our attorney has been more than fair towards the respondents in extending them additional time to comply with the order,” Mnguni said.
He said despite the order being clear, the SAPS has wilfully and intentionally disregarded the order, imposing their own terms which have not been placed by this court.
In opposing the application, the SAPS said they were not prohibiting food from going down. They said there are three mine bosses underground, who are heavily armed and who confiscate the food; thus, the food does not reach all the miners underground.
According to the SAPS, these bosses decide on how to distribute the food, and the rest are kept at “tuckshops”.
“Permitting bulk supply of food will defeat the police operation against the illegal miners and encourage these bosses to detain the illegal miners longer,” the SAPS said.
Pretoria News
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