Disturbing videos have emerged showing the dire situation at a disused gold mine in South Africa where scores of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.<\/p>\n
They have been there since police operations targeting illicit mining started last year across the country.<\/p>\n
In one of the videos, which the BBC has not independently verified, corpses wrapped in makeshift body bags can be seen. A second shows the emaciated figures of some miners who are still alive.<\/p>\n
A long-delayed rescue operation, that last week a court ordered the government to facilitate, is continuing for a second day after beginning on Monday.<\/p>\n
Last year, arguing that the miners had entered the shaft in Stilfontein deliberately without permission, the authorities took a hard line, blocking food and water supplies.<\/p>\n
In November, one government minister said: \u201cWe are going to smoke them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 100 of the illegal miners, known locally as \u201czama zamas\u201d, have reportedly died underground since the crack down began at the mine some 145km (90 miles) south-west of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
The authorities however, have not confirmed this figure as it is yet to be \u201cverified by an official source\u201d, a spokesperson told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Hundreds are thought to be still in the mine while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.<\/p>\n
In one of the videos released by a trade union, the General Industries Workers of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces have been blurred. A male voice off camera can be heard saying that the men are hungry and need help.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re starting to show you the bodies of those who died underground,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is not all of them\u2026 Do you see how people are struggling? Please we need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the other video, a man says: \u201cThis is hunger; people are dying because of hunger.\u201d He then puts the death toll at 96 and begs for help, food and supplies.<\/p>\n
The union says the footage was filmed on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In a briefing held on Monday near the site of the rescue operation, Giwusa leadership, alongside community figures, said the videos shared \u201cpainted a very dire picture\u201d of the situation underground.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has transpired here has to be called what it is; this is a Stilfontein massacre. Because what this footage does is show a pile of human bodies, of miners that died needlessly,\u201d Giwusa president Mametlwe Sebei said.<\/p>\n
He blamed the authorities for what he described as a \u201ctreacherous policy\u201d that was deliberately pursued.<\/p>\n
The department of mineral resources, leading the rescue effort, told the BBC that Monday\u2019s operation included lowering down a cage that is then hoisted up once loaded with people.<\/p>\n
This structure is designed to hold six or seven people, depending on their weight, according to Giwusa. It has been going down the shaft \u2013 descending about 2km \u2013 every hour. The union said that by the end of Monday 26 miners had been brought up alive, along with nine bodies.<\/p>\n
Department of mineral resources spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi could not confirm whether the priority will be to retrieve those who had died or those in need of medical attention.<\/p>\n
A briefing will be held by the department, together with the police ministry, on Tuesday to provide an update on the operation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Disturbing videos have emerged showing the dire situation at a disused gold mine in South Africa where scores of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months. They have been there since police operations targeting illicit mining started last year across the country. In one of the videos, which the BBC has not independently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}