{"id":250854,"date":"2024-11-14T14:16:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\/"},"modified":"2024-11-14T14:16:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:16:52","slug":"south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"South African government says it won\u2019t help 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<br><p>An aerial view of a mine shaft where an estimated 4000 illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, on November 13, 2024.<\/p><div id=\"article-text\">\n                       \n                        \n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South Africa\u2019s government says it will not help about 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country\u2019s North West province as part of an official policy against illegal mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The miners in the mineshaft in Stilfontein are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other basic necessities after police closed off the entrances used to transport their supplies underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is part of the police\u2019s Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole, operation, which includes cutting off miners\u2019 supplies to force them to return to the surface and be arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the last few weeks, over 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in North West province, with many reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 20 miners have surfaced from the mineshaft in Stilfontein this week as police guard areas around the mine to catch all those appearing from underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government would not send any help to the illegal miners because they are involved in a criminal act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted. We didn\u2019t send them there,\u201d Ntshavheni said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Illegal mining remains common in South Africa\u2019s old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The illegal miners are often from neighboring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their presence in closed mines have also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.<\/p>\n\n                <p><strong>DISCLAIMER: <\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p>      \n               \n <!-- Post Tags -->\n                \n\n                        \n\n    \n                                 \n                                             \n                    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An aerial view of a mine shaft where an estimated 4000 illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, on November 13, 2024. South Africa\u2019s government says it will not help about 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country\u2019s North West province as part of an official policy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>South African government says it won\u2019t help 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South African government says it won\u2019t help 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An aerial view of a mine shaft where an estimated 4000 illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, on November 13, 2024. South Africa\u2019s government says it will not help about 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country\u2019s North West province as part of an official policy [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-14T14:16:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mine.webp.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"headline\":\"South African government says it won\u2019t help 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-14T14:16:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":374,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/Mine.webp.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Top News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/south-african-government-says-it-wont-help-4000-illegal-miners-inside-a-closed-mine\\\/\",\"name\":\"South African government says it won\u2019t help 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine - 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