A group of illegal miners is still buried 300m underground in an abandoned mineshaft in Ekurhuleni, at least four days after the shaft collapsed.
It is believed the shaft caved in when the miners tried to blast their way deeper into the tunnel.
Four days later, the men remained trapped; dead or alive – nobody knows.
Police first received reports of the accident at the old Gravelotte gold mine next to Modderbee Prison in Benoni on Monday.
Ekurhuleni Emergency Services lacked the skills for the specialised rescue, while the Mines Rescue Services sat with their hands tied, waiting for instructions from the Department of Mineral Resources.
Hundreds of metres above, motorists on the nearby Putfontein Road (R51) drove by, unaware of the crisis below them.
The department could not confirm the number of miners trapped, but estimates ranged between five and 20 people.
Only one survivor has been found.
He was pulled from the rubble on Tuesday by a team of specialists arranged by the Pamodzi Gold liquidators, who are responsible for the nearby Grootvlei mine.
Grootvlei attained notoriety after former Big Brother contestant “Bad” Brad Wood and four others were charged after four illegal miners were shot dead at the mine last year.
The Gravelotte mine can be accessed by two closed shafts on the Grootvlei property, about 2.5km and 3km away.
But the team withdrew when they realised the danger of the situation.
“It’s really very unsafe,” said joint liquidator Johan Engelbrecht. “There are apparently cracks everywhere. The roof can cave in at any time.”
On Thursday, the chief inspector of mines was still trying to determine the risks of a safety operation.
The deputy general secretary of the Solidarity union, Gideon du Plessis, said the ground above the miners had collapsed on top of them, presumably during blasting.
“There were no supports in place and fractures all over the walls,” he said.
The mine was a maze of little passages with no pillars for support, and the overhanging earth had been dug out.
In the shockwaves of an explosion, it would have come tumbling down.
By Thursday evening, Department of Mineral Resources spokeswoman Zingaphi Jakuja said the department had “written to the (Pamodzi Gold) liquidators, who must engage the services of Mines Rescue Services”.
But last night, Engelbrecht said the liquidators had not received any instructions from the department.
“We contest that this is our responsibility,” he said. “Gravelotte is not in our area.”
But, he added, the liquidators had independently decided to send another specialist team down the mine.
“What we do next will rely heavily on the advice of that team.”
- The Star/IOL
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