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Video taken underground shows dead bodies and emaciated bodies.
Disturbing footage has been released showing the dire conditions at a disused gold mine in South Africa. There, dozens of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.
They have been there since police operations targeting illegal mining began across the country last year.
One of the videos, which the BBC has not independently verified, shows a corpse wrapped in a makeshift body bag. The second photo shows the emaciated forms of some of the miners who are still alive.
The long-delayed rescue operation, which a court ordered the government to expedite last week, began on Monday.
Last year, authorities took a hard line by cutting off food and water supplies, claiming miners had deliberately entered the Stilfontein shaft without permission.
In November, a government minister said: “We’re going to get rid of them completely.”
More than 100 illegal miners, known locally as “Zama Zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the crackdown began at the mine, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.
However, a spokesperson told the BBC that this figure was not confirmed by authorities as it had not yet been “verified by official sources”.
Hundreds are believed to still remain in the mine, while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.
One video released by the South African General Industry Workers’ Union (Giusa), a trade union, shows dozens of shirtless men sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces are blurred. Off-camera, a man’s voice can be heard saying that the men are hungry and need help.
“We’re starting to show bodies of people who died underground,” he says.
“And this is not all…Do you see how people are suffering? They need help.”
In another video, a man says: “This is starvation. People are dying of hunger.” He put the death toll at 96 and asked for help, food and supplies.
The union said the video was shot on Saturday.
Giusa
Cages are being lowered from the top of a disused shaft to bring miners back above ground
At a press conference near the site of the rescue operation on Monday, Giusa’s leadership, along with local officials, said the shared video “paints a very dire picture” of conditions underground.
Giusa president Mamelwe Sebei said: “What happened here must be called what it is. This is the Stilfontein massacre, because what this footage shows is that miners died needlessly. It just shows a pile of dead bodies.”
He accused the authorities of a deliberately promoted “policy of betrayal”.
The Department of Mineral Resources, which is leading the rescue operation, told the BBC that Monday’s work included lowering the cage, loading it with people and then hoisting it up.
Giusa said the structure is designed to accommodate six or seven people, depending on their weight. The tunnel continues to descend approximately 2km every hour. The union announced that by the end of Monday, 26 miners and nine bodies had been pulled out alive.
Ministry of Mineral Resources spokesperson Mahosonke Buthelezi could not confirm whether the priority was to rescue the dead or those in need of medical treatment.
The department will hold a joint briefing with the Ministry of Police on Tuesday to provide an update on the operation.
Getty Images/BBC
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