Stilfontein rescue to focus on sick miners
Two suspected illegal miners were brought up to the surface in Stilfontein on Friday and taken to a local hospital.
Friday’s operation, which is led by community leaders, focused on rescuing the sick and vulnerable.
Another body was brought up to the surface on Friday afternoon.
It remains unclear how many more dead bodies remain underground.
Letters sent from the bottom of shaft 11 plead with community rescuers to help stop the deaths.
One of the miners who endured the treacherous 12-kilometre trek to shaft 10 said that while it helped get his children through school and maintain his household, he’ll never return to the world of illegal mining.
“I’ll never do this again. I’ve realised it’s going to kill me one day. I’ve seen too much death.”
He begged authorities to speed up rescue efforts. However, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola couldn’t give timelines for the operation until funding was secured.
Masemola maintained that the miners do have options to come up through various exits.
“These people went in there willingly, and now they’ve been given food and water. So, they should come out. If they don’t want to, we’ll go back to the drawing board and see how we can get them.”
Earlier, one of the six suspected illegal miners who resurfaced on Friday described scenes of death and starvation.
To date, more than 1400 miners have resurfaced through various shafts.
According to General Masemola, more than 900 of the detained miners were Mozambican.
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