Community members watch as Senzo Mchunu, South African police minister, inspects outside the mineshaft where it is estimated that hundreds of illegal miners are believed to be hiding underground, after police cut off food and water as part of police operations against illegal miners, in Stilfontein, South Africa, November 15, 2024.
Yesterday, the mine rescue team assessed the shaft to see what equipment they needed before they started the retrieval operation. The site is expected to be cleared first in the next few days before the official retrieval operation can begin. The community stopped retrieving the illegal miners to allow the task team, that was appointed by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, to take over.Residents’ leader in charge of retrieving the miners, Thembile Botman has raised concerns about authorities not providing the miners with food underground.
Botman says, “The only thing that bothered us is that authorities have no plan of saying they will give them food in the meantime that they are waiting, at least for them to survive or for them to be sustained. We will just hope that after six days, we are saving human beings that are still alive not corpses.”