Etelä-Afrikassa paikalliset viranomaiset ovat käytännössä tappaneet ainakin 78 käytöstä poistettuun Stilfontein'in kaivokseen omin luvin mennyttä omatoimista kaivajaa yrittäessään pakottaa heidät ulos estämällä ruoan ja juoman saannin. Vääntö jatkui kuukausien ajan. Lopulta tuomioistuin puuttui asiaan ja pelastustyöt saatiin käyntiin. Kovaa peliä!
Porukka haluttiin pihalle, koska kaivos on tarkoitus sulkea tukkimalla sisäänkäynti.
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/sout ... NR-02-0623
https://face2faceafrica.com/article/100 ... rican-mineAt least 100 people reportedly dead in illegal South African gold mine as rescues continue
By Haley Ott
January 14, 2025 / 7:09 AM CST / CBS News
Six more bodies have been recovered from an illegal gold mine in South Africa, where scores of people have reportedly died underground since authorities tried to force them out and seal the mine in November, CBS News partner network BBC News reported. Eight people were rescued alive on Tuesday and 26 were recovered on Monday, the BBC reported.
Over 100 people who were illegally mining in the abandoned mine have reportedly died since the crackdown began, a group representing the miners told British broadcaster Sky News. Arguing that the miners had entered without permission, the crackdown involved authorities cutting off their access to food and water, the BBC reported.
Last week, the government was ordered by a court to facilitate a rescue operation.
Videos that appear to have been taken on mobile phones inside the mine and brought to the surface by those being rescued show what appear to be emaciated people and corpses wrapped in makeshift body bags. CBS News has been unable to independently verify the videos.
The General Industries Workers of South Africa, a trade union also known as "Giwusa," released one video CBS News has been unable to independently verify that shows dozens of men sitting on a floor with a voice off camera saying they're hungry and need help.
"We're starting to show you the bodies of those who died underground," said the voice in the video. "And this is not all of them. ... Do you see how people are struggling? Please – we need help."
In a briefing on Monday, Giwusa leaders called the situation in the mine a "massacre," the BBC reported.
"What this footage does is show a pile of human bodies, of miners that died needlessly," Giwusa president Mametlwe Sebei said.
South Africa's department of mineral resources told the BBC the rescue operation on Monday involved lowering a cage into the mine that is designed to hold six or seven people. It said the cage has been going up and down the shaft every hour.
https://apnews.com/article/south-africa ... 5b287a488c
Elävät, kuolleet ja puolikuolleet on tämän mukaan saatu ulos kaivoksesta:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czj3d4pwlrjo
No more miners trapped underground in South Africa, volunteers say
15.01.2025
Mayeni Jones, BBC News, Johannesburg
No more illegal miners are believed to be trapped underground at a gold mine in South Africa, volunteers working with rescue teams have said.
At least 78 bodies and more than 200 survivors have been pulled out since Monday after a court ordered the government to facilitate rescue operations at the mine, the site of one of the most extraordinary tragedies to hit the industry.
Police said they would check that no-one was left on Thursday, when a rescue cage would be sent down the mine.
The stand-off began in November when the government ordered police to arrest any miner who surfaced, saying it was determined to end illegal mining.
During a visit on Tuesday, the police and mines ministers were insulted and told to leave by an angry crowd that blamed the government for the deaths.
Police said that more than 1,500 miners had come to the surface before the rescue operation began, Reuters news agency reports.
However, others remained underground, either because they feared arrest or were forced to stay there by gangs that control the mine.
A South African Police Service spokesman said of the volunteers' statement that no-one was now still underground: "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 surface with the cage. We cannot say for sure that the operation has been called off at this stage."
Many mines in South Africa have been abandoned over the last three decades by companies that did not find them economically viable.
The mines have been taken over by gangs, often former employees, that sell minerals they find on the black market.
This includes the mine in Stilfontein, some 145km (90 miles) south-west of the country's biggest city, Johannesburg, which has been the focus of government efforts to clamp down on the illegal industry.
A rescue cage has been making trips down a shaft to reach scores of miners thought to be at least 2km (1.2 miles) underground.
Many of the survivors had been without food and water since November, leaving them emaciated. They are now receiving medical care.
The authorities say they will be charged with illegal mining, trespassing and contravention of immigration laws, as the majority of the miners are undocumented migrants from neighbouring countries.
"It's a crime against the economy, it's an attack on the economy," Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday as he defended the hard line taken against the miners.
South Africa relied heavily on miners from countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique before the industry went into decline.
Unemployment in South Africa is currently more than 30% and many former miners say they have little alternative source of income.
