Mine fire 'still raging'
2007-10-08 10:21
Welkom - The bodies of 23 illegal mineworkers - or so-called zama-zamas - were brought to the surface of the St Helena gold mine after they died in an underground fire during the past two weeks.
Many of these bodies were already in an advanced stage of decomposition and nearly unrecognisable. The police were going to try and find their families so that these people, who had been working the mines illegally and stealing gold, could be identified.
Beeld reported on September 25 that several people had died underground, and that one of the survivors had told the gruesome details about how several of his friends had "fallen" underground. The mine could not confirm the deaths before finding the bodies.
Pieter Bezuidenhout, chief mine inspector of the Free State, even denied that anybody had died in a local newspaper last week.
Went back for their friends
As none of the mineworkers or members of the mine's rescue teams or prototeams could get near the underground fire or working place of the illegals, a group of zama-zamas - who had escaped the fire and who knew the tunnels well - was willing to fetch the bodies.
Body bags were handed to them on Thursday. They brought the bodies to the lift on the 23rd level of the St Helena gold mine's number 8 shaft, from where they were fetched by mining staff and brought out.
Amelia Soares, spokesperson for Harmony mining group, said the case was now in the hands of the police. The bodies would remain at the mortuary in Welkom, where post-mortems would be done.
Beeld found that most of the illegal miners had died due to inhaling poisonous gases.
Poisonous gases were emitted by burning underground cables, electric cables and wooden struts.
About 120 zama-zamas (all of them illegal citizens from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe) were arrested after the fire had driven them to the surface. Many of them have already been found guilty of trespassing and sentenced.
Provincial police commissioner Commissioner Amon Mashigo, said eight bodies were brought to the surface in the first group, and 15 in the second group.
A criminal investigation would be done. The bodies that could not be identified would have to undergo forensic tests to determine their identity.
Mashigo called on family and friends of illegal mineworkers whose loved ones were missing to go to the mortuary at the police station in Welkom to identify the bodies.
The fire, which was still raging, started in a depleted part of the mine and might have been caused by the work of the illegals in that part of the mine.
The mine sealed off that area and could vouch for all its legal workers.