This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
EWN reports that the North West Department of Health plans to conclude the paupers’ burials of illegal miners who died at a decommissioned gold mine in Stilfontein by the end of June or in early July.
The bodies of almost 90 illegal miners were pulled from an abandoned shaft earlier in 2025 when police intensified an operation to clamp down on illegal mining at an old Buffelsfontein gold mine in the area. Close to 2,000 illegal miners were arrested during the operation. With only 25 bodies identified and released to families from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique, the mass burial of unclaimed bodies of the illegal miners began a week ago. Thirty people were buried as unclaimed persons, but DNA was extracted in case families came forward at a later stage looking for their loved ones. Health officials confirmed that 23 bodies remained to be buried. Mining Affected Communities United in Action and other activists held a memorial for the illegal miners who died at Shaft 10 and 11 in Stilfontein. “We’re here to reaffirm the humanity of those who died at Stilfontein. These miners were dehumanised. These miners were criminalised. Nobody on the side of government and mining capital saw through their act of survival, past the fact that their actions were outside of the framework of the law,” said Lawyers for Human Rights attorney Mametlwe Sebei. Since the operation, there have been renewed calls for government to formalise artisanal mining.
- Read the original of the report in the above regard by Nokukhanya Mntambo at EWN
- Read too, Cleansing ceremony for Stilfontein illegal miners, at SABC News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page