JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s mining industry reported 42 deaths last year, the lowest number to date and a 24% improvement on the previous year, official statistics showed on Thursday.
The statistics did not include deaths from illegal mining.
Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe repeated the government’s position that illegal mining is a criminal activity and not part of his department’s remit.
Last week the bodies of 78 miners were pulled from an illegal gold mine after a heavily-criticised police operation lasting several months that tried to force them to the surface.
Of the deaths captured in last year’s official statistics, 11 were in the gold sector, 19 in platinum, six in coal and six in mines extracting other commodities.
Mantashe told a news conference in the capital Pretoria that there had been no “disaster-type” accidents in regulated mines last year, meaning events in which five or more mine workers had died. There was also a 16% improvement in occupational injuries.
Before 2024 the lowest number of deaths reported by the industry was in 2022, when 49 were recorded. The following year deaths increased to 55.
“As we release these statistics, we are conscious of the severity of illegal mining that has engulfed the South African mining industry,” Mantashe told reporters.
“Those that are involved in illegal mining, both the syndicates and the active illegal miners, have no regard for the health and safety of others, nor are they concerned about the laws that regulate the industry,” he added.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Alexander Winning and Barbara Lewis)
