Over 1500 miners have exited, but authorities are unable to say how many more remain underground
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Police minister Senzo Mchunu visits the site where illegal miners are trapped underground in Khuma, Stilfontein, on November 16, 2024.
On 2 January, LHR filed an urgent application at the constitutional court on behalf of Mining Affected Communities United in Action. In that application, a representative of the organisation shared a letter from miners trapped underground. “Most of the people are perishing at shaft 10, as they are forced to climb up at shaft 10 but they keep falling and dying and we can’t find their bodies,” the letter said.
“We request food. We have run out of food. Please we are humbly begging, people are dying non-stop … we know that hunger is the reason we are dying,” it said.“We are there because of the crime that is being committed that is illegal mining. Food has never been our arrangement from the beginning. We were there to make sure that whatever is being taken down is done in an orderly manner. We have never denied any food going down,” he said.
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