It took Limpopo illegal miners (zama zamas) almost two days using shovels and an excavator to find the bodies of their peers who had been stuck 40m underground following heavy rainfall.
They retrieved the eight muddied bodies at midnight on Saturday and had to take turns pulling out the bodies with a rope of the men had died of suffocation. Initially, they had heard them shouting for help.
Police in the province confirmed they had opened an inquest docket after the zama zamas, including three Mozambicans, four Zimbabweans and one South African, suffocated underground in GaMaroga Village outside Burgersfort.
Thomas Sibanda, a Zimbabwean national who started mining chrome illegally in the area three months ago, recalled how they spent hours digging to free the men after the entrance to the shift was blocked because of heavy rainfall.
The men had gone underground at about 11am on Friday but did not realise that the hole was filling up with water. The mud caved in and blocked the narrow entrance into the shaft.
“By the time we realised that the others were trapped it was already too late. We tried digging with shovels, an excavator and a TLB [tractor-loader-backhoe] until we were able to retrieve the bodies on Saturday night,” Sibanda said.
The father of two said at first they could hear the men shouting for help from the shaft. But as time went on their air supply was cut off and by the time the others managed to open the entrance all the men were dead.
“My heart is broken after what I saw. I don’t think I’ll want to go back underground but I might be forced to return because of hunger,” said Sibanda.
He said on a good day he makes up to R1,000 selling the chrome on the black market, and he can earn up to R11,000 a month to support his wife and children in Johannesburg.
When Sowetan arrived in the area on Monday there was no sign of mining activities around the hole. Some of the miners had fled in fear of being arrested.
Motene Mampuru, 37, was among the group of men who retrieved the bodies.
He described how the bodies were covered in mud and how some of the miners broke down in tears during the ordeal.
“It was impossible not to cry. I had to do something because they are human just like me and didn’t deserve to die such painful deaths,” said Mampuru.
Obey Ndlovu, 25, said he was ready to stop digging for chrome.
“I would rather look for something else because this is dangerous work. I never thought I would see eight people die before my eyes like this,” he said.
Provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Thembi Hadebe has warned people about taking part in illegal mining.
"As a province we have established a team to deal with illegal mining activities around the province, especially in the areas along the R37 road in Sekhukhune District and many illegal miners have been arrested and mining equipment confiscated," Hadebe said.
Moragedi Paul Maroga, who is the secretary of the Pulana Magora Traditional Council, said they were concerned with the rampant illegal mining activities in the area, adding that they had been complaining to authorities about it for years.
Magora said if urgent intervention was not made more people would die and the environment would continue being damaged by the illegal activities.
He said some of the people engaged in illegal mining had lost their jobs due to being retrenched by formal mines that closed down in the area a few years ago and that the majority were foreign nationals.
mahopoz@sowetan.co.za
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