When illegal miner Ayanda Tom failed to resurface from the abandoned Stilfontein mine at the end of three months, like he used to, his family panicked.
When the media reported news of miners resurfacing and other being found dead, Tom's family rushed to the shaft in the North West and sent letters underground to him using a rope.
“We just wrote that we are outside and that he should resurface,” said Tom's sister Zinzi.
However, their efforts were in vain as there was no response from 26 year old. Zinzi said the family was clinging to the hope that he was still alive.
Zinzi is now fighting for her brother to be brought to surface and is behind the latest bid to force the government to rescue illegal miners who are still underground, arguing that some of them faced imminent death.
Yesterday, Zinzi said the last time she saw her brother was in July when he informed the family he was going back underground.
“Right now there is nothing we can do, but stay in hope. In Xhosa they say ithemba ilibulale (hope does not kill),” she said.
On Thursday, Zinzi, deposed an affidavit at the Pretoria high court seeking the government's intervention after it was revealed that there were 109 dead bodies in shafts 10 and 11 of the mine. One body was pulled up on Thursday.
It was also revealed in a Constitutional Court hearing that so dire the situation was underground that some miners had resorted to cannibalism.
Today the government is expected to begin with rescue operations. The cost of the operation, R12m, would be borne by the Minerals Council SA and the government.
Yesterday, a grader levelled the ground at the mine in preparation for the rescue mission. Makhosonke Buthelezi, spokesperson for department of mineral resources, said a mobile rescue winder will arrive on site today. He said it was alleged that there were 550 illegal miners underground,
Zinzi said she did not want to take chances any more that is why she had to approach the courts for the government to intervene “because it is becoming too much”.
“My plea to government has always been to rescue them, and when the minister [Khumbudzo Ntshavheni] said they will smoke them out, then she has successfully done that because now we have bodies underground.”
According to Zinzi, Tom has been a zama-zama for more than two years.
“Usually he goes for two to three months and then he comes back, but when he did not come back around September, that is when we were in panic mode”
A father of two children, Zinzi said her brother told them that he needed to start making a living because he has been trying to get a job with no luck. He also told them he didn't want to go around harassing people. He used the money he got from illegal mining to support them as the sole breadwinner, she said.
Now Zinzi wonders if her brother is among the more than 100 bodies said to be underground. “We are not coping as a family.”
This Christmas was the first spent without him, said Zinzi.
“It was a very sad moment for us because we had a family tradition for everyone to be home on Christmas Eve.
“We would braai and on the 25th cook lunch and slaughter chicken or a goat depending on our financial state, but my mother said we are not celebrating this one at all.
“My mother said It seems like she is celebrating the death of her child without knowing the situation he is in and that she can't risk it'.
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Buthelezi said the mobile rescue winder weighs 45t and has the capacity to vertically hoist mine employees from 3,000m.
The mine rescue services have estimated it would take about 10 days to remove the people from underground because the winder can take about 10 people at a time.
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