Minerals and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has emphasised that there is a clear distinction between illegal mining and artisanal mining.

He says the difference has been misinterpreted by the Human Rights Commission in its national inquiry into the industry.

Appearing before the Commission in Johannesburg, Mantashe stressed that government has created policies and provided funding to support small-scale and artisanal miners in the country.

He argued that the 2024 disaster at the Stilfontein mine in North West was not due to regulatory failure on the government’s part, but a risk the illegal miners took despite the danger.

More than 70 illegal miners died underground after law enforcement officers blocked the entrances to the mine to flush out so called Zama Zamas.

“We are here to the Human Right Commission, you are conducting an Inquiry on artisanal and small-scale mining but your emphasis is on illegal mining. Our starting point is that your framework is wrong, you are having an inquiry on a wrong issue to resolve a different issue, so therefore this inquiry if it is about illegal mining, focus on illegal mining for what it stands for, it’s not for artisanal mining. So, if your recommendation conflates the two, I will be opposed to that.”

Minister Gwede Mantashe appears at the second leg of the SA Human Rights Commission’s National Inquiry into artisanal mining and its human rights impact. The first leg last year heard submissions and testimony from affected communities, civil society. #sabcnews #UpdateAtNoon pic.twitter.com/8GYMJeluKv

— SABC News Radio (@SABCNews_Radio) February 3, 2026

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