The Human Rights Commission has commenced with its first round of engagement with residents of Khuma near Klerksdorp in the North West.

This, after 87 illegal miners died underground while hundreds of others were trapped during Operation Vala Umgodi in January this year.

The police operation saw food and other aid that were normally taken underground withheld from mine workers.

Commissioner Sandra Makwasha says they need to make a determination whether Operation Vala Umgodi violated the rights of the community.

“Our role is to hear from the community members whether Operation Vala Umgodi resulted in human rights violations and make recommendations and also to speak about artisanal mining and moving it forward by ensuring that we have a policy framework that’s allow artisanal mining to operate. We have seen how communities are saying we want it in our community as part of the engagement we had.”

Meanwhile, Makwasha says the commission wants to further engage the community about the policy framework that will address the issues of artisanal mining.

“When we talk about policy framework, how do we ensure that we have policies that ensure that communities are able to participate in the economy, to ensure that they also have conversations about when mining closures happen how do they then continue with their lives. That is what we need to know because we have about six thousand mines that were closed but we have these un-rehabilitated mines that are happening, it means there are six thousand communities affected by this.”