South Africa’s government-led retrieval operation has resulted in the rescue of 246 illegal miners and retrieval of 78 bodies in the Stilfontein shaft mine, from Monday to Wednesday this week.
The government took over after the court ordered them to facilitate rescue operations at the mine.
Before this order the community-led operation had retrieved over one thousand illegal miners and nine bodies.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe has said, only two of the 78 retrieved bodies have been identified so far as many of the deceased illegal miners are believed to be foreign nationals without identity documents with of some the bodies having decomposed, and will require DNA for identification.
Meanwhile, the 246 who are still alive have been arrested and nine others are still hospitalised under police guard.
Volunteers working with rescue teams believe that no more illegal miners are still trapped underground at the gold mine.
While, the police said they would check that no-one was left this Thursday, when a rescue cylindrical metal cage was sent down the mine.
According to reports, many of the survivors had been without food and water since November, when the stand-off began after the government ordered the police to arrest any miner who surfaced, in-order to end illegal mining.
This the resulted in some of the illegal miners remaining underground, for fear of being arrested.
On Wednesday, Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe said, “It’s a crime against the economy, it’s an attack on the economy.”
Meanwhile, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) spokesperson Zama Ntshona says, the government needs to hold the companies that do not rehabilitate of the disused mines accountable, to avoid a scenario where individuals who are ready to loot could come and loot.
