Olivia
January 17, Stilfontein, South Africa: The tragic facts of Stilfontein in the mines where dozens of men work together, laboring to fill the stomachs of their families in the small caves so shallow that they couldn’t stand. The mud and the air inside were stuffy, working under confined spaces where these bodies were found.
Where they found bodies wrapped in fabric and were set aside in rows nearby. The death toll in a monthlong standoff between the police officials and the public trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday.
Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out” by cutting off their food supplies.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that 78 bodies were retrieved when there was an operation conducted which was ordered by the court with 246 survivors also pulled out from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mathe said nine other bodies had been recovered before the rescue operation, without giving details.
Community groups launched their rescue attempts when authorities said last year they would not help the laborers because they were “criminals.”
The bodies of the miners most likely have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.
South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.
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Kathy
Stacy
