5 February 2025
Activists picket outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on Wednesday, where the Mining Indaba conference is underway. They are demanding justice from the government and companies following the Stilfontein mining tragedy. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks
About 50 people picketed outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on Wednesday, where the Mining Indaba conference is underway.
The group called for justice following the Stilfontein mining tragedy. The Indaba is attended annually by government officials, investors and those in the mining sector from several African countries.
Placards tread: “Justice for the miners”, “Cops protect capital not people”, and “Nobody is illegal”.
Last month, more than 240 zama zamas were rescued and about 78 bodies were retrieved from the abandoned mineshaft. The miners had been trapped underground for months, with little to no access to food, water and medication.
Speaking to the crowd outside the indaba, Gabriel Klaasen – from the African Climate Alliance – called for justice to be done and reparations to be paid to their families of the Stilfontein miners who lost their lives. He accused the government of xenophobia, racism and Afrophobia in its response to the events that unfolded at the illegal mining site.
David Le Page, director of Fossil Free SA, said what happened in Stilfontein is an “absolute outrage”.
“In a constitutional democracy, the life of every single human being should be equally sacred and treated with the same importance by every organ of the state, which is the very opposite of what we’ve seen happen,” he said.
Le Page added that, “We thought that in 1994 … that we had at last secured the rights of everyone in this country, but it turns out that our Bill of Rights is a piece of paper to those standing in power in our country.”
Geronimo De Klerk, youth leader of Save Our Sacred Lands, said, “We stand in solidarity with those people that lost their lives, and with the families. We want justice for the families. We mourn with them.”
Activists call for justice for the miners and their families.