STILFONTAIN, South Africa (AP) — Death toll in one month Conflict between police and miners At least 87 people are trapped while working illegally at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, police said Thursday. Authorities initially faced growing anger and possible investigation for refusing to assist the miners and instead “displacing” them by cutting off food supplies.
National police spokesperson Aterenda Mate said 78 bodies had been recovered. Court-ordered rescue operation246 survivors have also been pulled from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mate said nine other bodies were recovered before the rescue operation, but did not elaborate.
When authorities made the announcement last year, local groups launched their own rescue efforts. won’t be able to help hundreds of miners Because they were “criminals”.
The miners are It is believed that he died of starvation and dehydration.although the cause of death has not been made public.
South African authorities have been heavily criticized for cutting off food and supplies to miners at the Buffelsfontein gold mine last year. This tactic of “wiping them out”, as a prominent minister put it, was condemned by one of South Africa’s largest trade unions.
Police and the mine owner were also accused of entering the mine and removing ropes used to transport supplies from the surface and dismantling the pulley system.
A court last year ordered authorities to allow food and water to be sent to the miners, but last week another court ruling forced the miners to launch a rescue operation.
For many, the disaster unfolding underground became clear weeks ago when local residents sporadically pulled decomposing bodies from the mine, some with notes begging for food to be sent to them. It is said that some people had been
“If the police had acted sooner, we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation with bodies piling up,” said local community leader Johannes Kankase. “This is a disgrace to a constitutional democracy like ours. Someone needs to explain what happened here.”
South Africa’s second-largest party, which is part of a coalition government, has told President Cyril Ramaphosa to set up an independent inquiry body to find out “why things got so badly out of hand”. asked to do so.
“The scale of the Buffelsfontein underground disaster is rapidly proving to be as serious as feared,” the Democratic Union Party said.
Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners have been working illegally at the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August last year. All survivors were arrested, although most had resurfaced on their own in the past few months, and some who emerged this week were so weakened they could barely walk to waiting ambulances, police said. It is said that it was done.
A convoy of mortuary trucks arrived at the mine to remove the bodies.
Mate said at least 13 children also emerged from the mine before the official rescue operation.
Police said Wednesday they believed no one else was in the basement and would end the operation after three days. Indeed, on Thursday, cameras were sent into the cages used to extract survivors and bodies.
During the rescue operation, two local volunteer rescue workers ducked into a small cage to help the miners, as authorities refused to allow official rescuers to enter the shaft, saying it was too dangerous.
Mandla Charles, one of the volunteer rescuers, said: “The last few days have been difficult. (We) have saved a lot of people, but there are still people whose families came out in body bags. I feel sorry for him,” he said. “We did everything we could.” Police said the two volunteers were receiving trauma counseling.
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and is an intricate maze of tunnels and levels, with several shafts leading into it. The miners worked in different groups up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground.
Police claim the miners could have exited through multiple shafts, but refused for fear of arrest. Groups representing miners dispute this, saying hundreds were trapped and starved to death in dark, damp conditions with rotting corpses surrounding them.
In an interview with state television, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denied that police were responsible for the famine and said they had allowed food supplies to dwindle.
Last year’s first police operation to force miners to turn themselves in and face arrest was part of a larger nationwide crackdown on illegal mining known as Vara Umgodi (Plug the Holes). Illegal mining is frequently in the news in South Africa, posing a major problem for authorities as large groups enter closed mines to extract the remaining deposits.
Gold-rich South Africa has an estimated 6,000 abandoned or closed mines.
According to the government, illegal miners known as “Zama Zamas” (Zulu for “hustlers” or “opportunists”) are usually armed, are part of criminal gangs, and collect more than $1 billion a year from South Africa. It is said that he is stealing money. deposit. They are often undocumented foreigners, and authorities say the majority of those who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho and had entered South Africa illegally.
Police said they had seized gold, explosives, firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners, defending their hardline stance.
“Providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners would be giving police entertainment and allowing crime to flourish,” Mace said Wednesday.
However, the South African Federation of Trade Unions questioned the government’s humanity and its ability to “allow anyone, whether a citizen or an illegal immigrant, to starve to death underground”.
Although police actions have been condemned by civil society groups, the tragedy has not sparked an outpouring of anger across South Africa. In South Africa, Zama Zama, who are primarily foreigners, have long been considered unwelcome in a country that already suffers from high rates of violent crime.
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Imlay reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/Africa
