While rescue groups labored to retrieve unlawful miners trapped within the Buffelsfontein gold mine simply exterior Stilfontein, anxious family watched from the sidelines as miners and corpses had been introduced out of the deserted shaft.

‘Yesterday, I heard on the information that corpses had been introduced out of the mine,” Matumelo (not her actual title) informed Daily Maverick throughout day two of the rescue operation to retrieve miners trapped within the Buffelsfontein gold mine exterior Stilfontein in North West. “Now, the only thing I am asking myself is: Is the father of my child still alive?”

Finding refuge from the sweltering warmth underneath the shade of a tree, Matumelo seemed in direction of the crane that had been set as much as rescue the miners, considering what had grow to be of her accomplice. The 26-year-old had not heard from him since August final yr when police descended on the mine and closed off entry to the deserted shaft as a part of Operation Vala Umgodi.

“I’m worried about him. He has been in the shaft for months now. I have given birth, and my child is two months old. She doesn’t even know her father,” mentioned the younger mom.

Matumelo’s fears summed up the overall feeling of the offended and anxious Stilfontein residents who gathered exterior the cordoned-off rescue web site, anxiously ready as miners — alive and useless — had been introduced out of Shaft 11 by rescue staff.

On Monday, disturbing footage obtained by the miners’ rights group Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) gave South Africans the primary glimpses of circumstances contained in the mine.

The two movies revealed heaps of our bodies wrapped in plastic and a shirtless, emaciated miner, the implications of months with out entry to contemporary provides. The movies emerged after police blocked the miners’ provide of meals, water and medicine in a bid to “smoke them out” and arrest them for illegally getting into and mining within the deserted shaft.

As the operation continued, a fleet of pathology vans sped previous journalists and residents camped exterior the mine. From a distance, staff clad in white hazmat fits could possibly be seen on the again of a pink truck. By 4pm on Tuesday, 14 January, 27 corpses had been retrieved from the mine, their identities unknown. Fifty-six different miners had been introduced up alive.

On day one of many rescue operation, Monday, 13 January, 35 unlawful miners had been extracted, 9 of whom had been licensed useless. This brings the overall for the rescue operation, which is predicted to final 16 days, to 188 miners faraway from the shaft.

In an announcement launched on Tuesday afternoon, SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed that the 82 surviving miners had been arrested for unlawful mining, trespassing and contravention of the Immigration Act.

“Two illegal miners who were found in possession of gold have also been charged with being in the illegal possession of gold-bearing material,” mentioned Mathe.

Ministers transient the media

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe visited the location of the rescue operation on Tuesday, the place they addressed the media concerning the operation led by the Mine Rescue Services (MRS) group.

Mchunu mentioned that there was no manner of understanding precisely what number of unlawful miners had been trapped underground, however insisted that the operation aimed to retrieve and arrest all these nonetheless alive within the mine.

“The illegal miners we have arrested after resurfacing are giving us different figures and estimates. We will only know how many people remain underground through this current operation. After 10 days, the operation will tell us how many remain underground. We will do our best to take everybody, dead or alive, out of the shaft,” mentioned Mchunu.

While Mchunu’s tackle to the media was measured, Mantashe responded bluntly to the circumstances the miners confronted underground.

Labelling unlawful mining “a war on the economy”, Mantashe defended the federal government’s sluggish response in rescuing the miners, saying that there was no humanitarian answer for individuals who broke the regulation and willingly put their lives in danger.

“It is a criminal activity. It is an attack on our economy by foreign nationals in the main,” mentioned Mantashe.

Macua consultant Sabelo Mnguni informed Daily Maverick that Mantashe’s assertion violated the constitutionally mandated proper to life.

“Our lives as ordinary people in South Africa don’t mean anything to them; hence he says this. There is a lot of criminality happening in South Africa, but the government’s response to the miners’ situation shows that they do not care,” mentioned Mnguni.

Tensions flare

After addressing the media, Mchunu and Mantashe, accompanied by a big entourage, made their solution to the residents of Stilfontein who had gathered exterior the demarcated shaft, calling for accountability from the federal government.

The ministers had been meant to have a gathering with the group to listen to their considerations and talk about the rescue operation. But the group, disinterested within the ministers’ presence, listened as a substitute to Lawyers for Human Rights legal professional Mametlwe Sebei as he lambasted the federal government for its sluggish response.

“We should call it what it is. These ministers are here at the scene of the crime. Hundreds of miners have died underground in what can only be a bloody culmination of their treacherous policies of the police operation, planned and executed with the approval at the highest echelons of the state, including the Cabinet,” mentioned Sebei.

Mchunu lashed out at Sebei, shouting on the legal professional to let him communicate, which prompted the group to activate the minister with loud shouts of “voetsek”.

The ministers left the scene with the group yelling insults as they sped off of their blue-light convoy.

‘I did it to eat’

Daily Maverick spoke to a miner who escaped the shaft in August, simply because the police descended on the unlawful mine. After weeks underground, mentioned Moeketsi Kgathi, he surfaced from the mine seeking meals, solely to be confronted by the police who had arrived to shut off the doorway to the mine.

“I had been in darkness in that mine for a long time, so when I surfaced, it took some time for my eyes to adjust to the light. When I saw the police, I was scared that I would be shot. I ran and dove to the ground. I didn’t realise I had fallen on a metal pipe,” mentioned Kgathi, talking in Setswana.

He lifted his shirt to indicate a scar on his chest the place the pipe had impaled him. Kgathi mentioned that he was noticed by group members who discovered him bleeding within the bushes and rushed him to hospital.

When requested why he went down into the mine, Kgathi mentioned, “There are not any jobs. Before I began mining, I used to interrupt into homes at Khuma [a local township]. I used to be a gangster; I used to be a thief. This mine saved me from that life. We are hungry and the sources are there. The authorities will not be giving us jobs, however they’ve allowed this mine to remain deserted whereas persons are struggling.

“What is happening right now is … very painful and hard to understand. It is even worse that it is being done by a government we voted for. I barely escaped that day with my life. Now I am standing here watching them pull up corpses. I have friends who are still trapped in there, and I don’t know if they are dead or alive.” DM