The Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, believes the mud rush disaster at the diamond mine in Kimberley — where five miners are still missing — is a liability Ekapa inherited from De Beers, the mine's previous owner. The minister conducted an inspection visit at the mine earlier today.
"De Beers must not pretend to be clean on this disaster because it's their old shafts," said Mantashe.
He says that De Beers handed over the disaster to smaller operators who took the assets at a discounted price, but the responsibility for rehabilitation lies with the previous owners.
The minister also expressed his opinion that the five miners are now presumed dead.
“We hope that we can find those bodies rather than keeping the hope that they are alive," he said.
"If you are away from the 17th to today in a mud rush, as a mineworker, I can tell you that I would easily do what I call presumption of death and assume that they are dead.
"The possibility of life is minimal," said the minister.
Mantashe said starting the year with a "disaster" of this scale is bad news for South African mining's aspiration to achieve Zero Harm.
“What you should remember (is that) we have just announced a record of 41 deaths in the industry (in) 2025, and are starting this new year with a disaster, which is a bad sign for the industry," said Manatashe.
He added that there is no longer hope that the miners will be found alive.
Merel van der Lei 16 Feb 2026 "They were hoping that those people would be rescued. We have gone underground. I can tell you it’s going to take longer than expected.
"We can sugar coat it to make people grow hope, but it’s difficult cause there is water this side, there is drilling happening at 20 metres about the body and it is a complex exercise," said the minister.
The minister has asked the Chief Inspector of Mines, David Msiza, and the Council for Geoscience to launch an investigation to determine the source of the water once the bodies have been retrieved.
