Rescuers sent a cage-like structure into one of South Africa’s deepest mines on Tuesday in a bid to dig out survivors among hundreds of illegal miners trapped underground for months in an abandoned shaft. More than 100 are believed to have died of starvation or dehydration.
A group representing miners said at least 18 bodies and 26 survivors have been pulled from the Buffelsfontein gold mine since Friday, but more than 500 miners are believed to still be underground. Police said they are not sure how many remain, but it is likely in the hundreds.
The mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, has been the scene of a tense standoff between police, miners and members of the local community since November, when authorities first launched an operation to try to expel the miners. Reports say some of them have been underground since July or August last year.
Authorities say the miners can leave and refuse, but that has been questioned by human rights groups and activists, who have fiercely criticized police tactics of cutting off food and water supplies to miners from the surface in an attempt to force them to leave. . Human rights groups say many of the miners are starving and cannot get out because the shaft is too steep and the ropes and pulley system they used to enter have been removed.
Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa, where companies close mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to break into them to try to find surplus deposits.
Large groups of illegal miners often stay underground for months to maximize their profits, taking food, water, generators and other equipment with them, but also relying on other members of their group on the surface to send more supplies.
Some have escaped from the mine since November, authorities have confirmed, although the exact number is unclear. Police say the miners fear arrest if they leave.
Human rights activists said the only way out is for the miners to make a dangerous journey to another shaft, which can take days, and crawl there. They said many of the miners are too weak or sick to leave. The mine is 1.5 miles deep with multiple shafts, many levels and a maze of tunnels, and the community mining group said there are numerous groups of miners in various parts of the mine.
The group Mining-Affected Communities United in Action, which took authorities to court in December to force them to allow food, water and medicine to be sent to the miners, released two cellphone videos that they said were underground and showed dozens of corpses. of miners wrapped in plastic. A spokesman for the group said “a minimum” of 100 miners had died.
The cell phone videos, supposedly from the depths of the mine, are filmed by a man who can be heard saying: “This is hunger. People are dying of hunger,” as he records emaciated men sitting on the damp floor of the mine. And he adds: “Please help us. Bring us food or take us outside.”
South Africa’s Police Minister and Mineral Resources Minister were due to visit the mine on Tuesday, while authorities have come under scrutiny for their tactics.
South African cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters in November that the government would not help the miners, whom he considered “criminals.”
“We are not sending help to criminals,” he said, according to local media. “Let’s scare them away. They will come out.”
