The police in Gauteng says they are investigating the deaths of eight people, suspected to be illegal miners, whose bodies were found in Germiston.
According to Gauteng Police Spokesperson Brenda Muridili, it is common practice that when illegal miners die underground, their colleagues sometimes retrieve the bodies, leaving them in a public place for police to find.
Joint forces between Free State police and Harmony Mine Management continue to assess the situation to determine the safety of the area.In the Free State, 31 illegal miners were burnt to death by methane, which exploded underground as a result of a cigarette that was lit at disused shaft five in Virginia. So far, three bodies have been retrieved, while others are still trapped.
Investigations into the deaths of illegal miners continue. So far, the dead bodies believed to be Lesotho nationals have been reported. Methane gas is suspected to be the cause of the deaths of illegal miners. Some of the miners are believed to be still trapped underneath, presumed dead.Free State Police spokesperson Motantsi Makhele says, they continue to deal with illegal mining in the Goldfields area.
“You would realise in the Goldfields, we have a problem of people who were doing it visibly, where people were looking. But we managed to beat that by arresting most of the people who were doing it on the surface. Now, the problematic part is the underground, where we still have illegal miners, which we are also hitting very hard, and every week we confiscate some of the utensils or equipment used by them.
The Department of Mineral Resources says it is still investigating the matter and that the assessment made has determined that methane levels at the mine ventilation are very high. And that makes it hard for them to dispatch a search team to the shaft.
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