Identifying the bodies retrieved from a disused mineshaft in South Africa this week will be a “mammoth task,” a police spokesperson has said.
Brig Athlenda Mathe informed reporters near the Stilfontein mineshaft that 78 corpses and over 240 illegal miners had been brought to the surface since Monday as part of a rescue operation.
The miners had reportedly been underground since at least November, when authorities intensified efforts to end illegal mining by blocking access to food and water supplies at the shaft’s entrance. Despite this, the police maintained that miners were free to exit the shaft at any time.
The mine has now been cleared of both the living and the deceased, according to police. However, Brig Mathe revealed that only two of the deceased have been positively identified so far. “Some of [the corpses] were decomposed bodies that came up mostly as bones,” she stated.
DNA tests are being conducted, but identifying the victims is complicated by the fact that “the majority of [those found] are undocumented migrants,” she explained. Many of their families may be unaware they were in the mine.
The majority of those rescued alive are believed to be from neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
A trade union and human rights activists have accused the authorities of orchestrating a massacre. However, the police have defended their actions, arguing they were targeting criminal operations and that gang leaders controlling the mine were responsible for withholding supplies and preventing individuals from resurfacing.
Tensions flared during a visit by the police and mines ministers on Tuesday, with an angry crowd blaming the government for the deaths and demanding they leave.
Police reported that more than 1,500 miners surfaced before the rescue operation began. Some miners remained underground due to fear of arrest or coercion by gangs controlling the mine.
The mine in Stilfontein, located about 145km (90 miles) south-west of Johannesburg, is one of many abandoned by companies over the past three decades due to economic infeasibility. These abandoned sites have since been taken over by gangs, often composed of former employees, who extract and sell minerals on the black market.
A rescue cage was used to reach miners thought to be over 2km (1.2 miles) underground. Many survivors, left emaciated after months without food and water, are now receiving medical care.
The authorities plan to charge the miners with illegal mining, trespassing, and violating immigration laws, as most are undocumented migrants.
“It’s a crime against the economy, it’s an attack on the economy,” said Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe on Wednesday, defending the government’s tough stance against illegal mining.
South Africa once relied heavily on miners from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique. However, the decline of the mining industry, combined with the country’s unemployment rate of over 30 per cent, has left many former miners with few alternatives for earning a livelihood.
