An attorney at the Right2Protest Project at Wits University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies, Felix Quibe, says the State can argue that assisting illegal miners would be tantamount to aiding and abetting criminality.

He was speaking ahead of today’s hearing in the High Court in Pretoria of the main application in a stand-off between illegal miners and police at a mine in Stilfontein, North West.

The court is expected to determine the fate of the unknown number of illegal miners.

An organisation called Society for the Protection of our Constitution approached the court for relief for the illegal miners.

Quibe says, “There are reports that some of the miners underground, due to starvation, they don’t necessarily have the power on their own to exit, so they could still need actual assistance from the government.

So, they could rely on the right to life which cannot be limited, otherwise the right to health and human dignity. On the government side, they could rely on that an order imposing an obligation could simply be amounting to the government aiding and abetting criminal activities or assisting people in the commission of the crime.” 

Meanwhile, efforts to retrieve miners are set to continue this morning at a Stilfontein mine.

Illegal miners who are underground fear being arrested.

Less than ten illegal miners have emerged from underground since Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s visit to the site on Friday. By Additional reporting by Itumeleng Kgagane, SABC News