The police are keeping their cards close to their chest with regards to their next move in operations in Stilfontein, where alleged illegal miners have been underground for weeks.
This is as they savour their “victory” in the Pretoria high court and feel vindicated by admissions made by resurfaced miners.
The court on Monday dismissed an application brought by the Society for the Protection of our Constitution seeking to compel government departments, including the police service, to provide emergency disaster relief to illegal miners underground by providing food, water, blankets and medical relief.
The miners had been underground for weeks in a 2km-deep shaft when police pounced on them at exit points during Operation Vala Umgodi, which aims to combat illegal mining.
Over the past few weeks, miners have slowly been resurfacing, with the latest cohort coming up on Sunday evening. Police confirmed that 14 illegal miners, including a 14-year-old, had resurfaced at shaft 10, which is linked to shaft 11 at the disused mine.
Some claimed that their counterparts were afraid to come up for fear of being arrested , seemingly vindicating the police's past assertions on the matter.
Police top brass, speaking at the release of the second quarter crime statistics for the 2024/25 financial year, kept mum on their next steps in the wake of the latest developments. The statistics were released on Monday in Parktown.
“We normally don't discuss our plans, especially what we're going to do next, but what we know is that no-one was ever trapped in there and people are free to come out.
“Some did come out yesterday [Sunday] and we will continue with our operations. They [zama zamas] won't eat soil, so at some point they'll come out. There's nothing to be scared of, they must just come out,” national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola told TimesLIVE Premium.
He echoed police minister Senzo Mchunu's words at the briefing.
“Our plan is to remove unlawful mining in South Africa. So the illegal miners are the second fiddle, the first is illegal mining. That's our target,” he said.
Major-Gen Norman Sekhukhune gave a detailed breakdown of the crime statistics.
It was revealed that contact crimes declined by 3% between July and September to 160,935 from the same period in 2023.
All the offences within that category, except for attempted murder and assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm (GBH), saw a decline to varying degrees.
They [zama zamas] won't eat soil, so at some point they'll come out. There's nothing to be scared of, they must just come out.
— Police top cop Fannie Masemola
Robbery with aggravating circumstances saw the biggest decrease, down 8.8% to 35,429. This was followed by common robbery, which went down by 6.2%, and murder, which declined by 5.8% to 6,545.
Sexual offences went down by 2.5% and within that subcategory, rape saw the biggest decline. Reported rape cases decreased by 3.1% to 10,191.
Within the aggravated robbery subcategory, all the crimes saw a decline during the three-month period. Robbery at non-residential premises saw the biggest drop (21.1%), followed by truck hijackings (15.3%). Cash-in-transit robberies declined to 40 from 64 a year ago.
All but three provinces registered a decline in contact crimes during the quarter. Gauteng saw the biggest decrease (7.6%), followed by Northern Cape (5.5%) and Limpopo (4.3%). KwaZulu-Natal led in terms of an increase (1.5%), followed by Free State (0.2%) and Eastern Cape.
The leading causes of murders, attempted murders and assault GBH were arguments, misunderstandings, road or provocation, followed by robbery. Illicit mining also featured on the list, coming in last.
The crime statistics also presented a bleak picture on the fight against gender-based violence.
It emerged that 957 women were murdered between July and September, an increase of 8.6%.
In the children's category, 22 more children were murdered during the three-month period. This is an increase of 7.5% to 315.
North West deputy police commissioner Patrick Asaneng provided an update on the assessment carried out by experts ahead of the rolling out of phase three of the miners recovery operation.
This phase will see the actual retrieval of the suspected illegal miners.
“We have not yet received the results. The experts are still doing that, they explained that it's quite an elaborate process that they are dealing with. They are not only assessing the exact numbers that were said to be underground, but are also looking at those that are able to come up on their own.”
Asaneng confirmed that from November 22-25, 55 zama zamas had resurfaced.
“Since the last time the minister [of police] was here, 1,259 illegal miners have resurfaced without government [initiating] phase three.
“The ones who resurfaced on Sunday used Margaret shaft ... which is a shaft of a mine that is still operational and therefore, there is no risk or danger of them using crude equipment. The majority of them have used this shaft to emerge from underground,” he said.
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