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Police seen outside a mine shaft in Stilfontein where illegal miners remain underground.
The continued delay in bringing out illegal miners from underground in Stilfontein’s Shaft 11 is causing grave concern among human rights activists, who warn that the death toll could rise.
Since last month, eight bodies have been recovered from the site, highlighting the dire situation.
Authorities in the North West Province have revealed that R7.8 million is needed to retrieve illegal miners still believed to be underground.
The Department of Community Safety in the province says the government currently does not have the funds.
More than 1 500 illegal miners have since resurfaced, with the majority originating from neighboring countries, including Mozambique, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe.
”Letters have been found coming out from the shaft reiterating how severe the situation is, where human bodies are now being used as substance by survivors that are down the shaft. At this point, we then hear of these kinds of delays. Justice delayed is justice denied and as each day that goes by, we see an escalation of mortality rate and the fact that, you know, the message has to be made clear; we are facing an absolute humanitarian disaster,” says human rights campaigner Tauriq Jenkins.
Police in the province have refuted allegations of cannibalism underground.
”Up to this point since we started with this operation on the 18th of August, only eight corpses have resurfaced and all the eight were in an advanced state of decomposition but there was also no sign of cannibalism on any of the corpses,” says Acting Provincial Police Commissioner Patrick Asaneng.
VIDEO| Human Rights activists have also raised concerns about the supply of food to illegal miners:
