Families gather at South African mine shaft where hundreds are feared underground

Record ID: 1856444

  • Title: Families gather at South African mine shaft where hundreds are feared underground
  • Date: 15th November 2024
  • Summary: KHUMA, STILFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA (NOVEMBER 15, 2024) (REUTERS) POLICE TAPE AROUND ILLEGAL ENTRANCE TO STILFONTEIN MINE VARIOUS OF CROWD NEAR MINE ENTRANCE PULLEY HANGING OVER ENTRANCE SHAFT CROWD NEAR ENTRANCE VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS HOLDING PICKET SIGNS (SOUNDBITE) (Shona) FAMILY MEMBER OF ILLEGAL MINERS, ROSELINA, SAYING: "I come from Chipinge in Zimbabwe. I'm here waiting for young people who are underground, who are dying. Young people from my home, in Zimbabwe. It's better South Africa hands over those young people so we can take them back home and bury them. That's all we're asking for." PROTESTERS SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (Shona) FAMILY MEMBER OF ILLEGAL MINERS, ROSELINA, SAYING: "Yes (we have family members). More than 20, who come from Chipinge, in Zimbabwe. We hope they will come out so we can take them home. One has a wife who is here. She's just crying, we don't know how to help her. Her husband went underground in April and has been down there until now. No food, no what. We're trying to support her." PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS READING (English): "SMOKE ANC OUT" (SOUNDBITE) (Sotho) COMMUNITY MEMBER, MATSIDISO RAMOLLA, SAYING: "We are asking for help from the government to assist us so our children can come out of the mine. All we are asking for is their remains to come out as the community of Khuma, Stilfontein." PROTESTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Sotho) COMMUNITY MEMBER, KONA LETSHABA, SAYING: "This thing (mine) they don't want with belongs to no one, and this mine has been here for a long time but they don't open it so they can give people jobs yet they close the mine." VARIOUS OF SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF POLICE, SENZO MCHUNU, TOURING AREA CROWD NEAR ENTRANCE SHAFT
  • Embargoed: 29th November 2024 11:30
  • Keywords: Africa Khuma North South West army illegal miners mining police stilfontein
  • Location: KHUMA, STILFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City: KHUMA, STILFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Africa,Disaster/Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVA001999415112024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Desperate family members of illegal miners believed to number in the hundreds waited outside a disused mine shaft in South Africa on Friday (November 15) in hope of their loved ones emerging from the hole in the ground.
    The miners are in a standoff with police, who have blocked their supplies of food and water and are trying to force them out to arrest them for illegally entering the abandoned mine in search of leftover gold - a common problem in South Africa.
    More than 1,000 illegal miners have already resurfaced in recent weeks as the police have cracked down, and at least one dead body has been brought up.
    It was unclear if those remaining in the mine in Stilfontein, North West province, were unwilling or unable to get out of the shaft, which descends vertically for more than 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) underground.
    Police and community members stood around the rocky entrance, where a pulley had been set up to hoist men out.
    Illegal mining has plagued South Africa for decades through small-time pilfering and organised criminal networks. Many of those who do the risky work of breaking into old industrial mines are immigrants from neighbouring countries.
    They are referred to as zama-zamas - a local term that comes from the Zulu expression for "taking a chance".
    Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said earlier this week that the government would not send help for criminals but instead would "smoke them out".
    Some community members held signs that read "Smoke ANC out" in response, referring to the governing African National Congress party.
    (Production: Thando Hlophe)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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