A number of volunteers have entered an abandoned gold mine in South Africa to help what may be thousands of illegal miners who have been underground for a month.
Because the miners entered the shaft in Stilfontein on purpose, seeking to retrieve gold scraps or minerals, the authorities took a hard line, withholding food and water.
Earlier in the week, one government minister said: “We will smoke them.”
The miners have refused to cooperate with authorities as some are undocumented immigrants and fear deportation or arrest.
There are reports that miners ate vinegar and toothpaste to survive when they were underground.
It is feared that their health may deteriorate, and they may become too weak and weak to leave the mine themselves.
The volunteers, organized into three groups of 50 people, said it took about an hour to get one person out.
Lebogang Maiyane has been volunteering since the beginning of the week.
“The government does not care about the impact on the right to life of illegal miners living underground – this is tantamount to murder,” he said.
Illegal miners are called “zama zama” (“take chance” in Zulu) and they work in abandoned mines in a country rich in minerals. Illegal mining costs the South African government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales each year.
The police are reluctant to enter the mine as it is possible that some underground people are armed.
Others are part of gangs or “recruited” to be part of them, Busi Thabane, of the Benchmarks Foundation, a charity that monitors South African companies, told the BBC’s Newsday.
Many mines in South Africa have been closed in recent years and workers have been laid off.
To survive, miners and undocumented migrants go underground to escape poverty and mine gold to sell on the black market.
Some spend months underground – there is even a small economy of people selling food, tobacco and cooked food to the miners.
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Residents of the area have appealed to the authorities to help the miners but they refused.
“We will smoke them and they will come out. We do not send help to criminals. Criminals are not helped – they are persecuted. [sic],” said Minister in the Office of the President Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Wednesday.
The father, who has two underground sons, said the minister’s words were “bad”.
“These people are people. These people have families,” he told the BBC.
Relatives of the miners were protesting near the mine site, holding placards that read: “Smoke the ANC” and “Down with the MEC in the President’s Office”.
Thandeka Tom says his brother is one of the many underground miners [BBC]
The Police Minister, Mr. Senzo Mchunu, visited the area on Friday, but when he tried to talk to members of the public who were waiting to hear the news of their loved ones in the pit, he was turned away.
Thandeka Tom, whose brother is in the mine, criticized the police for not sending help.
“They are talking about the right, there is a problem of unemployment in the country and people are breaking the law as they try to put food on the table,” he told the BBC.
Without access to resources, underground conditions are said to be dire.
“There is no more talk of illegal miners – this is a people’s problem,” Ms Thabane said.
On Thursday, community leader Thembile Botman told the BBC that volunteers used ropes and seat belts to pull the body out of the mine.
“The smell of rotting corpses left the volunteers traumatized,” he said.
It is not clear how the person died.
Although the authorities were withholding food and water, they allowed local residents to send other items by cable.
Mr Botman said they had been communicating with the miners through notes written on paper.
Volunteers use a pulley to lower themselves down the shaft [Reuters]
The police blocked the entrances and exits in order to force the miners to leave.
This is part of Vala Umgodi, or “Close the Hole”, an operation to stop illegal mining.
Five miners were pulled out by rope on Wednesday, but they were weak and powerless. The paramedics took care of them, and they were detained by the police.
Last week, 1,000 miners came forward and were arrested.
The police and the army are still at the scene waiting to detain those who do not need medical help after they reappear.
“It is not as easy as the police make it seem – some of them fear for their lives,” said Ms Thabane.
Many miners spend months underground in unsafe conditions to support their families.
For many of them, it is the only way they can put food on the table,” said Ms. Thabane.
The South African Human Rights Commission says it will investigate the police for depriving miners of food and water.
It said there is concern that the government’s performance may have an impact on the right to life.
Illegal mining is a profitable business in many of South Africa’s mining towns.
Since December last year, nearly 400 high-class firearms, thousands of bullets, rough diamonds and cash have been seized from illegal miners.
This is part of a strong campaign by the police and the military to stop this practice which has a huge impact on the environment.
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