Basic foods first, mayonnaise and sauce can wait: Macua to miners

The request for mayonnaise and tomato sauce by illegal miners who remain underground in Stilfontein in conditions of starvation symbolises the broader struggles for dignity that communities excluded from the mainstream economy are engaged with every day. 

The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) said this on Tuesday after reports emerged of a note sent from one of the miners on Monday, in which they requested condiments and tinned food as well as washing powder, bath soap and roll-on deodorant. 

“The request by miners who have been denied their basic human rights for more than four months challenges us, and the public, to consider the nuanced humanity of the miners beyond their illegal status,” the organisation said in a statement.

Macua said while it respected the right of the miners to claim their dignity in any small way, it respected the decision by the community rescue task team members to deny the request at this time due to the need to ensure basic foods were provided first.

“Our priority remains to provide basic essentials with the limited donations we have received, while acknowledging the basic humanity and dignity of the miners trapped underground.”

Macua said it rejected the characterisation by some that the miners were refusing to come out of the shaft, and that they were making unreasonable demands.

“From all the letters we have seen that have emerged from the shaft, the miners are humbly making requests in a situation in which they are trapped underneath the earth and where their human dignity has been greatly impaired by the continued refusal by the state to start the extraction operation.” 

The organisation said it wished to debunk the false narrative proffered by the police that miners “were refusing to come out”.

“Every time a rope went down to extract miners from Shaft 11, it came out with people. Either a dead body or a miner hanging on for dear life. This, along with the numerous letters calling for a speedy recovery, is ample testimony that they desperately want to come out. 

Macua said if the government did not intervene, the rescue operation facilitated by the community members was likely to finish only three months from now, judging from the number of people that can be extracted in a day.

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