60 bodies, 92 survivors pulled from illegal mine as hundreds remain underground

STILFONTEIN (AP):

Months after South African authorities initially cut off supplies to miners working illegally in an abandoned gold mine, rescuers brought dozens of bodies and emaciated survivors to the surface on Tuesday with hundreds more still believed to be underground, many of them dead and others too weak to come out on their own.

At least 60 bodies and 92 survivors had been pulled from one of South Africa’s deepest mines since Monday in a red cage-like structure lowered thousands of feet underground, the police said. The police are uncertain how many miners remain inside, but said it is likely in the hundreds. Another nine bodies were brought out on Friday in a community-led rescue effort, according to a group representing the miners.

Residents desperately waiting for news of family members gathered at the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, some holding placards criticising the authorities for their response. One sign said there had been a “Sacrifice at Stilfontein”, while some handcuffed survivors were led away in a line by the police.

The authorities say the surviving miners are able to come out and are refusing because of fear of arrest, but that has been disputed by rights groups and activists, who have fiercely criticised police tactics at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, where more than 100 miners are believed to have died of starvation or dehydration.

The mine has been the scene of a tense stand-off between the police, miners and members of the local community since the authorities launched an operation in November to force the miners out by cutting off food and water from the surface for a period of time.

At the time, a Cabinet minister said the aim was to “smoke them out”, and the government would not send help because they were “criminals”.

Civic groups won a court case to force the authorities to allow food, water and medicine to be sent down to the miners. But they say the supplies aren’t enough and many of the miners are dying of starvation and unable to climb out because the shaft is too steep, and the ropes and pulley system they used to enter have been removed.

The community organised its own rescue operation on Friday before the official effort by authorities began on Monday. They say a proper rescue operation should have been launched months ago.

“We are happy that this operation is happening, even though we believe that if it was done earlier, we wouldn’t even have one dead person,” said Mzukisi Jam, the regional chairperson of the South African National Civics Organization, an umbrella for civic and rights groups.

The authorities have grappled with informal mining for years

Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa, where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to enter them illegally in a search for leftover deposits.

Large groups of miners often go underground for months to maximise their profits, taking food, water, generators and other equipment with them, but also relying on others in their group on the surface to send down more supplies.

Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe visited the site on Tuesday and said that more than 1,500 miners who resurfaced from the Buffelsfontein mine have been arrested since the authorities began a larger crackdown on illegal mining in late 2023. He said the vast majority were foreign nationals from neighbouring countries.