Photo credit: NPR
Several hundred people are believed to be trapped in an illegal mine in South Africa after the government cut off vital supplies and refused to help them in a bid to crack down on the industry.
CNN reports that food and water supplies to those underground have been halted by police seeking to force the illegal miners to come to the surface.
Illegal miners can travel up to 4 kilometres underground and spend months below the ground in old mines. But without supplies, conditions are believed to be deteriorating underground.
A decomposed body was brought to the surface on Thursday. Police spokesman Athlenda Mathe said pathologists were at the mine in Stilfontein.
Family members gathered near the mining site on Thursday. They told Agence France Presse they were worried about relatives who were still underground.
Reports vary as to how many miners were in the abandoned gold mines in the North West province. The police spokesman, Sabata Mokgwabone, told the Associated Press that three miners who had come to the surface indicated that up to 4,000 miners could be underground. Other police reports said the number in the mine was in the hundreds.
Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said on Wednesday that no help would be given to the illegal miners.
However, Mametiwe Sebel, who heads the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, criticized Ntshavheni’s comments. He warned that the approach “is almost criminalizing the entire 4000 people – many of whom are just poor desperate people.”
