The South African government has launched a mission to bring potentially hundreds of people in an illegal mine to the surface who last year had supplies of food, water and medicine blocked by police in an attempt to force them out.
The government agreed to the attempt on Friday after the brother of one of those underground initiated a court case in response to letters from miners brought to the surface on Thursday.
One of the letters claimed 109 people had already died in the Buffelsfontein gold mine near Stilftontein, about 100 miles south-west of Johannesburg.
Illegal mining has flourished in South Africa in recent decades as many industrial mines have been exhausted. Analysts estimate there are around 30,000 “zama zama” illegal miners producing 10% of South Africa’s gold output in 6,000 abandoned mineshafts, often controlled by violent criminal syndicates.
In late 2023, police launched Operation Vala Umgodi (plug the hole) to crack down on the sector across South Africa’s north-eastern mining belt. In early November, they said their blockade of essential supplies around Stilfontein had forced hundreds of miners to the surface since mid-October “as a result of starvation and dehydration” although later that month they allowed some supplies to be sent down.
The blockade of the 1.2-mile deep shafts at Buffelsfontein began as far back as August, according to an affidavit by miner Clement Moeletsi, who was hauled out by locals using ropes on 9 December.
Moeletsi claimed in his affidavit that by September the miners were eating cockroaches and toothpaste mixed with salt. Another miner who was rescued by locals on 25 December and another who climbed out using a thin metal pole have alleged that some people have resorted to eating dead bodies.
Sporadic supplies were lowered into the mine in November and December.
Officials have claimed the men are hiding underground to avoid arrest, pointing to around 1,500 people that have emerged from another mine shaft in the area.
“We don’t believe they are trapped, because other ones … have come out,” said Makhosonke Buthelezi, a spokesperson for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
Jessica Lawrence of Lawyers for Human Rights, which is representing NGO Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA), said the men at the Buffelsfontein mine shaft cannot get to the other mine shaft underground. She said nine bodies have already been recovered.
One phone video shared by MACUA, which they said was brought to the surface by a rescued miner on Friday, appeared to show more than 50 wrapped bodies laid out in an underground tunnel. Another showed dozens of emaciated men with protruding ribs and collarbones, one of whom pleads in English for them to be given food and rescued.
The operation is being carried out by private company Mines Rescue Services, which said on Monday afternoon it had started hoisting miners to safety. The company’s crane-winched cage can bring up six people an hour and the operation could take up to 16 days, chief executive, Mannas Fourie, told the local Sunday Times newspaper.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said: “It is unfortunate that there is loss of life … No one should have been underground because there are dangerous and hazardous gasses underground and alleged abuse of illegal miners. We will be investigating allegations that the food that was sent down was kept from illegal miners.”
