Body count continues to rise at disused Stilfontein mine

Illegal miners rescued from an abandoned gold mine sit on the floor as rescuers and South African Police Service (SAPS) officers record their details and provide assistance in Stilfontein on January 14, 2025. More than two dozen illegal miners have been rescued and at least 15 bodies recovered from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, as operations continued on January 14, 2025 to reach potentially dozens more people who have been underground for months. (Photo by Christian Velcich / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTIAN VELCICH/AFP via Getty Images)

THE body count continues to rise as the standoff between illegal miners and the South African government at the disused Buffelsfontein gold mine near Stilfontein in the North West province nears an end.

According to a report, which has been published in a number of newspapers on Wednesday, 60 bodies have now been retrieved.

“On day two of operations, a total of 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested for illegal mining. Fifty-one were certified dead,” police said in a statement. Nine bodies had been removed the previous day, said the newswire in a report in the Gulf News.

Police have voiced fears that hundreds more could remain underground, but at a visit to the site Tuesday, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu declined to estimate how many could be there. “There is no way on earth anyone can come and say: ‘I know for certain that there are so many’,” he said. “Every number that we have here is an estimate, is a guess.”

A video sent to AFP on Monday by Macua, a group that advocates for the miners, appeared to show dozens of corpses wrapped in cloth in the mine chambers.

Bloomberg News cited civil rights groups as saying at least 100 people have died from starvation since October when the authorities sealed off the mine to deny those underground access to food to force them to the surface.

While more than 1,500 miners have exited the mine and been detained, many more are still thought to be below ground, the newswire said.

There is still “quite a substantial number” of illegal miners underground, though it’s unknown how many, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said in an interview with Johannesburg-based broadcaster eNCA on Wednesday. “We are focusing on assisting them out.”

There are about 6,000 abandoned mines strewn across the country and a number of them have been accessed by informal miners, known locally as zama zamas, said Bloomberg News. But Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe has opposed calls for the formalisation of informal mining, it said.

“It’s a war on the economy,” he said during a visit to Stilfontein on Tuesday. “Until you show me something different about illegal mining, that they add value to the economy, I can’t change my approach.”