Police welcome Pretoria High Court judgment regarding aid for illegal miners at Stilfontein

JOHANNESBURG - Police have welcomed the judgment by the Pretoria High Court on an application calling for aid for illegal miners in Stilfontein.

Judge Brenda Neukircher ruled that the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution failed to suggest how rescue operations should be conducted any differently.

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The group argued that the treatment of miners at the Buffelsfontein mine was inhumane.

Neukircher also said that no evidence existed that authorities blocked the disused mine.

Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe reacted to the judgment: "We have always maintained that we have never been in any violation of the constitutional right to life and dignity. We have never blocked any shaft nor blocked any illegal miner from exiting through any disused mine shaft as is evident with the 1,239 illegal miners that have resurfaced in the past few weeks. We have also been allowing medical personnel to treat each and every miner that resurfaces."