JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At least 100 men illegally mining an abandoned gold mine in South Africa died of starvation and dehydration after being trapped deep underground for months as police tried to evict them, a group representing the miners said Monday.
More than 500 other people remain trapped, the group said.
Sabelo Mnguni, a spokesperson for the group Mining Affected Communities United in Action, told The Associated Press that a cellphone sent to the surface with miners rescued Friday contained two videos showing dozens of bodies underground wrapped in plastic .
Mnguni said “at least” 100 men had died at the mine in North West province, where police launched an initial operation in November to evict the miners. They would have died of starvation or dehydration, Mnguni said. He said 18 bodies had been evacuated since Friday.
Nine of those bodies were found Friday during a community-led operation, he said. Nine more people were recovered Monday during an official rescue operation by authorities, during which 26 survivors were also evacuated, Mnguni said.
Police spokesperson Brig. Sebata Mokgwabone said they were still verifying information on the number of bodies recovered and the number of survivors evacuated after launching a new rescue operation on Monday. Authorities now hope to get all the minors out, they said.
Illegal mining is common in parts of South Africa rich in gold, where companies close mines that are no longer profitable, letting groups of informal miners enter illegally to try to find remaining deposits.
The mine in question, located near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, has been the scene of a clash between police and miners since authorities first tried to remove the miners and to close the mine two months ago. Police said the miners refused to come out of the Buffelsfontein gold mine for fear of arrest, but Mnguni said they remained trapped underground after police removed the ropes they were using to enter and exit the mine.
Police also cut off the miners’ food supplies in an attempt to evict them, an action that was sharply criticized by Mnguni’s organization, known as MACUA, and others. MACUA won a court case in December that ordered police and provincial authorities to allow food, water and medicine to be sent to minors.
The South African government also came under scrutiny last year when it refused to help the minors.
Cellphone videos, purportedly taken from deep within the mine and released publicly by Mnguni’s group, show dozens of what appear to be corpses wrapped in plastic lying in dark tunnels. A man filming on his phone in one of the videos can be heard saying: “It’s hunger. People are starving,” as he films emaciated-looking men sitting on the damp mine floor. He adds: “Please help us. Bring us something to eat or take us out.
Mnguni said more than 500 miners still underground were in different locations at the mine, which is one of the deepest in South Africa at 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) deep and has several shafts , many levels and a maze of tunnels. said. He said a preliminary autopsy report on a body previously taken out of the mine showed the man died of starvation.
“What we understand is that there are different groups of miners underground and they all have miners who have died,” Mnguni said. “So we estimate that the number of people who died is very high. »
Large groups of illegal miners often spend months in hiding to maximize their profits, taking with them food, water, generators and other equipment, but also relying on other members of their group above ground to send more supplies.
Mnguni said miners who managed to escape sometimes crawled through tunnels for 3 to 4 days, risking their lives to reach another shaft from which they could escape.
Police said they did not know exactly how many illegal miners remained underground, but also said there were likely hundreds.
They said delegations from the Ministry of Police and the Ministry of Mineral Resources would visit the mine on Tuesday “after the start of operations to ensure that all illegal miners resurface”. The operation to force miners out of the Buffelsfontein mine, launched last year, was part of a wider operation which resulted in the removal of more than 1,500 illegal miners from the mines and their arrest throughout the North West Province, police said.
South African authorities have long tried to crack down on illegal mining gangs, known as “zama zamas” – meaning “hustlers” in the Zulu language – who have a reputation for being violent, often armed and part of criminal syndicates.
But Mnguni said these miners were not criminals but former mine employees who had been made redundant when the mines closed and were desperate.
“Miners return to the mine because they live in poverty,” he explained.
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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
