More than 240 foreign nationals rescued at Stilfontein as death toll sits on 78

A total of 246 illegal miners have been retrieved and arrested since rescue missions started earlier this week at shaft 11 in Stilfontein, North West.

National police spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said they retrieved 78 bodies.

Mathe said that of the illegal miners, 128 are from Mozambique, 80 are Zimbabweans, and five South Africans.

She said according to volunteers who were part of the retrieval operation, all illegal miners have been retrieved, however, she said they still need to verify the information.

"We will rely on the mine rescue service to confirm this with their state of the art equipment that will hopefully be able to give us a picture of what is happening underground. The Mine rescue service have confirmed that they will send the cage underground in the morning to see if any illegal miners resurface with the cage.

"We cannot say for sure that the operation has been called of at this stage. We will provide an update tomorrow morning on site again," she added.

The extraction of the miners and dead bodies followed the clearing of the site over the weekend and the arrival of a massive crane.

“Those that require further medical care are taken to a health facility for further medical care, while those who are in good health are immediately detained,'' said the Department of Police and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in a joint statement.

“Those that require further medical care are taken to a health facility for further medical care, while those who are in good health are immediately detained.” 

The departments said all illegal miners are processed to determine their nationality and their immigration status, and once that is done, they are detained in police cells.

Earlier, police Minister Senzo Mchunu expressed regret over the deaths of illegal miners at Stilfontein.

In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday night, Mchunu said government never suggested that it would never rescue the scores of stranded miners.

“We have never ever been unwilling to assist, and I think I need to straighten that record. There is no way we would have repeatedly gone there, spoke about this and even the design of operation Vala Umgodi never suggested directly or indirectly that the government is unwilling to assist people to go out (of the mine),” said Mchunu.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

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