Dead miners 'lived' in mine

The people whose bodies were pulled out of a mine shaft near Johannesburg on Thursday appeared to have lived in the mine, a volunteer who helped pull their corpses out said.

"They were there without permission. A stove was found inside the shaft when paramedics pulled the bodies out," Stefanus Skinner said.

Skinner, who works for the neighbouring Zimbiwa Resources, a dolomite mining company, had been driving past the open cast gold mine when he saw police cars and stopped.

"I stopped my truck and I went to see what was going on...that's when I started going down to the shaft and helping to pull out the bodies."

Skinner said he saw one body as it was being carried on a bloodied stretcher.

"The other bodies were covered so I couldn't see them," he said. Although he did not go inside the shaft himself, he told Sapa that the hole stretched to about 15 metres.

He said that he was at the shaft from 2pm on Thursday until 6pm and he also returned on Friday when police had already called of the search.

The police recovered four bodies of miners on Thursday after the Sowetan newspaper reported that 20 people had been shot dead while underground, allegedly by security guards.

The newspaper said the dead miners were left underground and that the guards allegedly did not notify the police of the shooting.

The Aurora Mine, situated between Springs and Benoni, is co-owned by President Jacob Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma and Nelson Mandela's grandson Zondwa Mandela.

A security guard, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four people from a security company came out of the shaft early on Tuesday morning.

They were heavily armed and had five people with them who they were accusing of being thieves.

When he went to the shaft after that, a colleague told him there were still people inside the shaft and those people were shot dead.