The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) Justice and Peace Commission has expressed deep sorrow following the deaths of illegal miners at a disused mine in Nkaneng, near Rustenburg, North West, calling for a transparent investigation and renewed efforts to address the deeper conditions sustaining illegal mining.

In the Friday, 14 August 2026 statement signed by the chairperson, Bishop Thulani Victor Mbuyisa CMM, the SACBC Justice and Peace Commission welcomes the deployment of specialised police capacities to assist the rescue, recovery and investigations following the 10 August tragedy which left at least 14 dead and eight injured.

The SACBC Commission for Justice and Peace stresses that the protection of human life must remain the priority, regardless of nationality, immigration status, poverty or involvement in unlawful activity.

“Every human life remains sacred and must be treated with dignity,” the statement says, recalling Pope Leo XIV’s words in the encyclical ‘Magnifica Humanitas’, which states that “The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce” (§51).

Questions have also been raised by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources following the indication that the “tragedy occurred within the boundaries of an area for which a valid mining permit has been issued, while clarifying that the permit relates to a surface opencast mining operation and does not include the underground mine shaft where the tragedy occurred.”

In the 14 August statement, the commission calls for an investigation to establish the status of the disused shaft, responsibility for securing and rehabilitating the site, whether access to the shaft was known to authorities or permit holders, and whether relevant safety, environmental and rehabilitation obligations had been fulfilled.

The Commission also stresses that the response to illegal mining cannot focus only on those found underground. It calls for actions against criminal syndicates and those who finance, facilitate, transport, process and ultimately profit from illegally extracted minerals.

The call comes as the South African government continues to intensify its fight against illegal mining. In March 2026, the South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile said intelligence-driven operations, including Operation Vala Umgodi, were being strengthened through specialized police units, disruption of supply chains, arrests and cooperation with the National Defense Force to support operations against illegal mining and related criminal activity.

For the SACBC Justice and Peace Commission, enforcement must be accompanied by action against the structural causes of the crisis, including unemployment, poverty, inadequate mine closure and rehabilitation, and poorly secured abandoned mining sites.

The Nkaneng tragedy, the SACBC Commission said, should prompt South Africa to reconsider how its mineral wealth is managed. “The mineral wealth beneath our soil is not merely a commodity,” the Commission said, calling for a mining economy centred on human dignity, decent employment, community development, environmental restoration and the wellbeing of future generations.