The Stilfontein massacre, reminiscent of the Marikana massacre, has once again exposed the deadly means the South African government is willing to employ to protect private corporate and commercial interests.

Artisanal Miners: Victims of a System of Exploitation

Labeled “illegal miners” by the state, artisanal miners are marginalized individuals struggling for better living conditions. They operate in parallel—and in resistance—to the industrial-scale mining industry, which has a long history of dispossession and exploitation dating back to the colonial era.

The narrative that these miners are an economic burden is constructed to dehumanize them. Like eight million other informal workers, they endure precarious conditions due to high unemployment, state failure to address basic socioeconomic issues, and capitalism’s “work or die” reality.

Stilfontein, like Marikana, reveals the state’s collusion with corporate mining interests. The violence it employs ranges from direct, structural, and narrative violence to the violence of inaction—all part of a legacy of colonial extortion driven by the need to control and extract labor and resources.

Mining Indaba: A Conference for Corporate Profit, Not Communities

Every February, Cape Town hosts Mining Indaba, Africa’s largest mining investment conference, attended by politicians, mining lobbyists, and corporate elites. The conference features South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe, and 42 ministers from 29 African nations.

To attend Mining Indaba, one must:

1. Register as a company or company representative.
2. Pay a £2,515 (R60,000) registration fee.

This is not a forum for discussing the needs of mining communities but rather a networking event for corporations to buy political influence.

The Indaba highlights the deep divide between business and political elites and the communities they affect. Prioritizing corporate profits over community needs has deadly consequences—as seen in Stilfontein, where 87 artisanal miners died due to state-sanctioned violence.

Operation Vala Umgodi: The State’s War Against Informal Miners

Since December 2023, the South African government has cracked down on artisanal mining, claiming it costs the economy R60 billion.

To “eradicate” informal mining, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy launched Operation Vala Umgodi (“Seal the Hole”), using police forces to block supplies to artisanal miners and trap them underground.

In August 2024, police surrounded Stilfontein’s abandoned Buffelsfontein gold mine, cutting off food and water supplies while dismantling pulley systems, preventing safe exits. Some miners escaped, but many remained trapped inside the tunnels, especially around Shaft 11, a 2-km-deep vertical shaft.

Authorities claimed miners refused to surrender, but families and community members feared they were unable to escape.

By November 2024, food and water had run out, and the situation became critical. MACUA (Mining Affected Communities United in Action) and Lawyers for Human Rights took the matter to court. A judge ordered police to allow humanitarian aid into the mine, but authorities ignored the ruling until contempt-of-court charges were threatened. Community-led rescue efforts managed to deliver some supplies, but they were insufficient.

A Delayed Rescue and a Preventable Massacre

In January 2025, after months of government inaction, a state-led rescue operation began. By then, the situation had become a humanitarian catastrophe.

Videos surfaced showing starving miners trapped in tunnels filled with bodies. When the operation concluded, 246 miners were rescued, while 87 corpses were recovered. The final death toll remains unknown, as many bodies remain lost in the mine’s labyrinth of tunnels.

The Legacy of Stilfontein

The Stilfontein massacre exposes how far the South African state will go to protect corporate profits. It is a continuation of colonial-era resource extraction, where labor is disposable, and human lives are sacrificed for economic interests.

As in Marikana, state-backed violence against miners serves as a warning: those who challenge the system risk death.

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