No sign of life at Stilfontein shaft as rescue operation winds down

Operation Vala Umgodi — to fight illicit mining — will continue

15 January 2025 - 20:39
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The mobile rescue winder which lowered a cage down the mineshaft to rescue trapped mineworkers.
The mobile rescue winder which lowered a cage down the mineshaft to rescue trapped mineworkers.
Image: supplied

An operation to extract illegal miners in Stilfontein which began on Monday has led to the extraction of 324 people by Wednesday afternoon, of whom 246 are alive. The others are bodies and human remains. . 

“All have been processed and corpses have been handed to pathological services to do the necessary to determine the causes of death. It is an elaborate process to determine when and how the people died,” said North West police commissioner Maj-Gen Patrick Asaneng on Wednesday evening. 

He said of the 246 live miners, 128 are from Mozambique, 80 from Lesotho, 33 from Zimbabwe and five from South Africa. He said the 78 corpses had not been identified. 

“This operation has been conducted with the assistance of volunteers assisting mine rescue services. Volunteers say they have combed the surface underground and confirmed there are no corpses or living miners underground,” Asaneng said. 

He said the rescue team would do a mop-up operation on Thursday to satisfy itself that the operation had come to its logical conclusion. 

Asaneng said while the rescue operation is likely to wind down soon, Operation Vala Umgodi — to fight illicit mining — will continue.

“Tomorrow, we will be guided by mine rescue experts on the way forward.”

Asaneng said since August 18 when the police operation started, and inclusive of the rescue mission which started on Monday, 1,905 people, inclusive of dead bodies, had emerged from underground. 

Asaneng said 1,437 emerged from Margaret shaft, 365 from shaft 11 — including the 246 from the rescue operation on Monday — and 103 from shaft 10.

TimesLIVE 


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