DURING a meeting held on Monday 21 June, North West Premier Job Mokgoro and Lesotho Consul General Selimo Thabane agreed to have further engagements.
The meeting was held at the Matlosana Municipality’s chamber before the identification of bodies at the state mortuary at Tshepang Hospital in Klerksdorp.
Mokgoro said illegal mining in the province was connected to an international syndicate and posed a danger to residents.
Thabane apologised to South Africans for the involvement of Lesotho citizens in these operations.
The two met after the discovery of the bodies of 20 people believed to have been zama zamas in Orkney on Monday 14 June, and Tuesday 15 June.
“It’s quite unfortunate what has transpired about these activities of illegal mining. We identified the bodies of 10 people from Lesotho, and we are going to help their next of kin take the bodies to our country,” he said.
Thabane said some of the dead were from Leribe and Botha-Bothe.
“Tags were attached for identification but some of them just had names without surnames, or village names,” he said.
Thabane said there would be more talks to find a solution to the problem.
At the start of the identification process on Monday 21 June, some family members who travelled to South Africa were seen crying, and were not ready to talk to the media.
