By MACUA Media
MACUA submitted a detailed and damning report to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the 2nd of April 2025 as part of the Commission’s National Inquiry into Artisanal Mining and its impact on surrounding communities and the scope and tactics employed in Operation Vala Umgodi by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
MACUA has been invited by SAHRC to present the findings on 19 May 2025.
The submission documents the events that led to the Stilfontein Massacre and lays bare the broader constitutional crises of exclusion, state violence and systemic failure that impacts on mining communities across South Africa.
The report focuses on the events at Shaft 11 of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, and how the state engineered a crisis where hundreds of artisanal miners were trapped underground, denied humanitarian aid and left to die from starvation and dehydration.
The submission draws from legal affidavits, forensic reports, court documents, survivor testimonies and ministerial statements. It provides overwhelming evidence that state security forces, under political instruction to “smoke them out,” systematically sealed off mine shafts, blocked food and medical aid, and sabotaged rescue efforts, despite knowing that the trapped miners had no alternative means of escape.
This submission is made with the hope that the SAHRC’s inquiry will serve as a catalyst—unlocking not only redress for those lost in Stilfontein, but setting in motion a process that reclaims dignity, voice, and justice for all mining-affected communities.
The submission was made under the theme, Justice for Stilfontein Is Justice for All Mining-Affected Communities. Access the submission on our website.
