National police commissioner and senior cops to join Sabie zama zama rescue operation

In an article published this morning, Lowvelder reported that the rescue operations at an illegal mine in Sabie in Mpumalanga has caught the attention of the national police commissioner, General Fannie Masemola.

He is scheduled to lead a delegation of senior police officers to Sabie to monitor Operation Vala Umgodi this morning.

“The delegation will receive an update on ongoing operations and thereafter provide an update to members of the media,” said the national police spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe.

Although sources close to the rescue operation repeatedly assured Lowvelder that six bodies of zama zamas had been retrieved by yesterday evening, Mathe put the number at three.

She said eight captives were rescued from the mineshaft.

“The rescue operation had to be aborted and will resume in the morning,” said Mathe. “More than 100 captives are still underground.”

Masemola and his delegation are expected to arrive at the Sabie rescue operation scene at 10:00. The delegation is expected to also visit a similar operation at Stilfontein in the North West later at 16:00. Hundreds of illegal miners are said to be trapped in an illegal mineshaft near Stilfontein too.

The Sabie situation was discovered on Tuesday when members of the police dog unit and a security company encountered four men who appeared to be fleeing for their lives.

“These men were found to be suspected illegal miners. They informed the security guards that they had been held captive inside the abandoned mine, and that there were about 150 others,” said provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Donald Mdhluli.

He said various police units, the emergency medical services, departments of health and home affairs, two private security companies as well as landowners and plantation companies were part of the rescue mission.

Two other captives were later rescued from the mine. These six people told the police they had been forced to extract gold-bearing rocks by their captors under dangerous and dire conditions. “In light of this incident, it is believed that the ones running this illegal operation could possibly be heavily armed,” said Mdhluli.

He said the suspicion was supported by the incident in which some zama zamas attacked the police, also in Sabie, on November 28. The police retaliated and three zama zamas were shot dead on the scene, while a police warrant officer sustained a gunshot wound to the leg and was hospitalised.