Lead researcher at Bench Marks Foundation, David van Wyk, says mining companies need to be held liable for tragedies at abandoned and unsecured mines.
This follows the deadly gas leak incident in which 17 people died in the Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Eleven others were hospitalised in an incident linked to illegal mining.
Government acknowledges the dangers highlighted by the illegal mining crisis in South Africa.
Van Wyk says mining old mines should be repurposed for good use.
“We keep on saying we must use the military and the police but that’s not their problem. It is a problem of the Department of Mineral Resources that’s not actually doing its work in making sure that mines are repurposed for other use such as schools, clinics, hospitals and a variety of other facilities could have been used by local government and could have overcome the housing crisis.”
