Opinion

The rescue operation at the Stilfontein mine is over, with a sorry toll of 78 bodies removed and 246 miners saved.

Among those pulled out alive - and arrested - were the leaders who ran the operation underground.

And among the items pulled out from the shafts was 640kg of gold-bearing material, 6.2kg of gold and millions in cash.

Aside from the number of people involved, this speaks of a massive undertaking requiring good logistical planning to manage the mining operation and the lives of those doing the work.

Allegations are that torture and beatings were used to drive production and that the food being sent down, once the miners' predicament became known, was hoarded by the ringleaders to keep them in line in slave-like conditions.

However, still to be identified and apprehended are the kingpins behind the mine, who remained above ground, and would have benefited most.

Police efforts must be concentrated in this area for several questions to be answered.

We need to know who was buying the gold, the methods used to transport it and who was complicit in facilitating these.

We need the police to literally follow the money and uncover those whose participation contributed to the deaths of 78 desperate souls.

The saga also demands that the government focus on the porous borders which enable the illegal miners to enter the country and get into the shafts. And for the gold to leave the country.

South Africa cannot be the sponge that absorbs all of Africa's poor; at present the economy cannot provide jobs for the country's own citizens without having to take on an influx of illegal immigrants.

And like in the Life Esidimeni tragedy, in which 144 people died needlessly, we need accountability from the government officials who dithered for months while the miners starved underground.

That President Cyril Ramaphosa did nothing as the men died is unconscionable. With his trade union background and subsequent chequered mining history, much more - and better - was expected of him.