A conflict between South African police and illegal miners ends in disaster. : NPR

STILFONTAIN, South Africa — They look like the walking dead. Dusty men, mud caked to their skin and hair, reduced to skeletons. Some people have difficulty walking and may collapse. They blink like moles in the harsh South African sun. Some look painfully young.

An operation to rescue hundreds of illegal miners from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, a small mining town about 160 miles southwest of Johannesburg, began on Monday, with rescuers saying there was no one left inside. It ended on Thursday after receiving the report.

A total of 246 illegal gold miners were brought to the surface alive during the rescue operation. A further 78 people were carried away as corpses.

The illegal miners, known here in Zulu as “zama zamas” or “opportunity takers”, have been underground for several months, and police announced in November as part of “Operation Vala Umgodi.” After cutting off food and water supplies, their condition is rapidly deteriorating. ” or “Please close the hole.”

Authorities said this was done to arrest them in order to resurface them, or, in the words of one minister, to “wipe them out.” Police initially said they were in a standoff with illegal miners who were refusing to turn themselves in for fear of arrest.

But as the weeks went by, local activists and trade unions said the men were too emaciated and weak to climb the dangerous two-kilometre (2-kilometre) shaft back to the surface, even if they had wanted to.

Earlier this month, the miners’ union shared a video shot underground depicting dire conditions. In one video, an unknown miner with his ribs sticking out cries for help. Another video showed how miners were living among dozens of corpses.

In affidavits filed in court, several Zama Zama men who resurfaced after the police operation began gave gory details about their underground lives, where they survived by eating cockroaches and toothpaste.

Mutukisi Jam, a local community leader who has been working in the abandoned mine for more than two months and organizing efforts to deliver supplies to illegal miners, is less critical of the government.

Standing on the dirt road leading to the Stilfontein rescue scene, where ambulances waited for survivors and people in hazmat suits disposed of bodies, Jam said a “massacre” had taken place.

“We’re not going to celebrate or praise or express gratitude to the government,” he told NPR. “We started communicating with the government before there were any deaths…but the government had to wait until people started dying.”

Near a huge pit leading into an abandoned mine, special machines lowered a cage and pulled out the man and his body. About 7 people can participate at a time, and each rotation takes about 1 hour. No police or rescue workers were willing to descend as the risk was too high, leaving ordinary volunteers from local towns to take on the devastating task.

Zinji Tom, whose 26-year-old brother has been underground since July, has been appealing for government support for several months. Several groups went to court to ask the government for mercy, but she eventually filed a final lawsuit and a rescue operation was ordered this month.

“We have been knocking on many doors asking the government for help,” she said. “Our government only knows you are human when you have to vote.”

Her younger brother Ayanda is the father of two young children. According to her, he had been unsuccessful in his search for work, and his desperation led him to survive a dangerous life deep underground.

She joined a small but vocal group of family members and community members each day singing protest songs and holding placards reading “#Black Lives Matter” and “Every Life Counts. Stop Xenophobia.” Outside the rescue scene.

Many here believe that the fact that Stilfontein Zama Zama are mostly Mozambicans and Zimbabweans plays a big role in the government’s attitude. And indeed, many ordinary South Africans are unmoved by their plight, with countless comments on social media platforms telling them to leave it alone.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is high in South Africa, and immigrants are often used as scapegoats for other problems. Youth unemployment in South Africa is over 45 percent.

Stilfontein is a microcosm of the post-apartheid government’s failure to improve the lives of many poor black people. Cows graze on lush fields, but the landscape is pocked with large mine dumps, many of which are now shuttered.

South Africa was once the world’s largest gold producer, but large-scale industrial mining has become unprofitable, many mines have closed and tens of thousands of workers have been laid off.

Samuel Seheben, 47, sits drinking mid-morning at a tavern in the nearby dusty town of Cooma.

“We are a mining town and our economy depends on mines, but recently with most of the mines closing, our local economy has taken a big hit,” he told NPR. . “I was working in the mining industry and I lost my job and was completely made redundant. That was in 2017 and I have been unemployed ever since.”

Seheben says he feels pity for the men who took Zama Zama’s life. There are thousands of abandoned mine shafts where you can search for just a fraction of the gold that made this country rich.

The government has long promised to take tough action against illegal mining, which it says will cost the South African economy R60 billion ($3 billion) in 2024. The government claims that Zama Zama are violent criminals who sometimes terrorize communities.

But experts on illegal mining say there are different layers in the world of zama-zama. A heavily armed gang leader runs an operation, assaults and extorts his minions, and becomes rich. And then there are the ordinary people who go underground, risking their lives for a little money.

“The darkest point in our history”

On January 10, more than two months after news of the Stilfontein crisis broke, the Pretoria High Court ordered the government to begin a rescue operation.

“We do not want this to go down as the darkest point in our nation’s history,” the judge said in his ruling.

But by the time the rescue operation ends on Thursday, with 78 people dead, Stilfontein may actually turn out to be one of the darkest episodes of post-apartheid South Africa.

The Democratic Alliance, one party in South Africa’s coalition government, has belatedly condemned the events in Stilfontein, but members of the African National Congress, the government’s largest party, are sticking to their guns.

Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told a press conference at the mine site on Tuesday: “You are attacking the South African economy, you are declaring war on the economy. I cannot be your partner.” .

After the press conference, Mr Mantashe and Police Minister Sentso Mchunu took to the streets to address angry families and protesters. However, they were yelled at and chased away, then quickly got into a waiting black BMW and drove away.

raising the body

All of the rescued illegal miners will now be prosecuted, and police announced on Thursday that they had also arrested some key figures in Zama City.

All of the rescued illegal miners will now be prosecuted, and police announced on Thursday that they had also arrested some key figures in Zama City.

Meanwhile, the government faces liquidation, and some civil society groups are calling for an investigative commission or even the filing of murder charges against the state. Police vowed to continue Operation Vala Umgodi.

Now that the rescue mission is complete, the difficult task of identifying the approximately 80 bodies will begin.

“The only thing we are grateful for is that at least families will have a chance to bury their loved ones,” says community leader Mutukisi Jam.

Whether they can make it happen remains to be seen.

NPR spoke to a forensic pathology worker at a hospital morgue in the nearby town of Klerksdorp. The police officer, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the facility was full and about 30 Zama Zama were dead and awaiting forensic examination.

He added that the temperatures inside the mine shaft were so high that much of it was in a state of severe decomposition. Some even wrote their names and family members’ phone numbers on their hearts, feeling a dark premonition of what was to come.