Originally published at The Crux
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After a deadly accident in an off-limits mine in South Africa earlier this month, one leading Catholic bishop is calling for accountability.
Tens of thousands of so-called “artisanal” miners work illegally in disused gold and platinum mines formerly operated by mining outfits, or else dig their own mines in search of deposits, often working without proper safety equipment.
Many of the miners who work these dangerous sites are undocumented immigrants.
Sometimes, miners spend weeks underground.
Fourteen such workers died on August 10, after a disused mine gave way in the Nkaneng informal settlement near Rustenburg and Marikana, South Africa.
The liaison bishop for the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), Thulani V. Mbuyisa of Kokstad, says writing the victims off as “illegal miners” is a moral failure that allows the true culprits to escape scrutiny.
“Regardless of their nationality, immigration status or involvement in illegal mining,” Mbuyisa tells Crux Now, “these were human beings whose lives had value.”
“We must enforce the law, certainly, but a society cannot be satisfied simply to label the dead as ‘illegal miners’ and then move on,” he says.
“We must ask what conditions repeatedly drive desperate people
