By Dylan Bettencourt
- Volunteer rescuers recover five bodies from the Stilfontein mine while trapped miners beg for medical help.
- The second crisis unfolds in Sabie where 150 miners are trapped, with six rescued and three dead.
Five bodies have been pulled from a mine shaft in Stilfontein while trapped miners underground sent up a request for help.
Locals using only ropes managed to bring up three decomposed bodies on Wednesday after finding two on Tuesday. They keep working even though officials want them to stop.
The miners, known as zama zamas, sent up a desperate note written in Sesotho: “We have many sick people. They can die anytime,” it read. “We ask that they be retrieved after the bodies have all been removed.”
Community members are sending down paraffin and tinned food to keep the miners alive.
“Those people are our brothers. We will not allow them to die underground,” said community leader Johannes Qankase. “Time is not on our side.”
He said they must first get all the dead bodies out before they can help the sick miners up.
“What we have gathered is that many want to resurface. However, they can’t leave dead bodies behind,” said Qankase.
Meanwhile, about 150 miners are also trapped in another abandoned mine in Sabie. Six have been rescued but three have died.
Police say there might be dangerous criminals involved after recent fights with police.
Major General Zeph Mkhwanazi said emergency teams were at the Sabie mine and asked people to let them do their work.
Pictured above: Food being sent down a Stilfontein mine shaft.
Source: SAPS
