At least 100 miners dead & 500 still trapped in abandoned gold mine after being stuck for NINE MONTHS underground
After spending months stuck in a South African gold mine, at least 100 illegal miners have perished.
In an attempt to “smoke them out” during a protracted standoff, police cut off their supplies, food, and water.
According to Sabelo Mnguni, a spokeswoman for the Mining Affected Communities United in Action Group (MACUA), the miners are thought to have perished from malnutrition or dehydration.
Since Friday, some eighteen bodies have been removed from the abandoned mine near the northwest town of Silfontein.
But after nine months underground, almost 500 more people are still trapped below.
The spokesperson also said that footage of dozens of plastic-wrapped remains was captured on a cell phone that was sent to the surface with some of the miners who were rescued on Friday.
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According to reports, the first depicts mounds of miners’ remains covered in plastic and sacks, while miners who are still trapped beneath begged for assistance.
In a second video, miners without shirts appeared malnourished, their ribs sticking out.
Two months after a confrontation with South African police, hundreds of miners are still waiting to be freed, according to MACUA spokeswoman Magnificent Mndebele.
There has been a standoff between miners and police since November as authorities have tried to close the mine and evict workers.
As part of a crackdown on illegal mining that has afflicted South Africa for decades, police said they limited miners’ access to food and water in order to drive them out and make arrests for breaking into the abandoned mine in search of remaining gold.
In a prior statement, Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni stated: “We are not providing assistance to criminals. Our plan is to burn them out.
“They’ll emerge. The goal is to prosecute criminals, not to assist them. They weren’t sent there by us.
A pulley system that was used to lower supplies to the miners and allow them to escape was destroyed, according to Mndebele, but MACUA fixed it on Thursday.
“The depth of the shaft is two kilometers. According to Mndebele, “people can’t climb up.”
According to a police spokesperson, South African officials are presently at the mine with equipment, getting ready for a scheduled rescue this week.
“The pulley system was put in place by community members, but it has been replaced with machinery used by mine rescue services,” he stated.
“The mine rescue services were contracted by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.”
Police spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone stated that they were still verifying reports on the number of bodies recovered and survivors hauled out since the new rescue effort started on Monday.
There will be more later.Stay tuned to The Sun Online for the most recent updates on this story.
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