(17 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stilfontein, South Africa – 15 January 2025
1. Various of Forensic officials loading the deceased miners into truck
2. Wide police officials looking on as bodies are loaded on truck
3. Wide several forensic vehicles arriving at the mine
ASSOCAITED PRESS
Stilfontein, South Africa – 16 January 2025
4. Lucky Mbizana walking using crutches at his mother’s house
5. SOUNDBITE (Setswana) Lucky Mbizana, food distributor for miners:
“I used to take food and wood for them to make fire, I specialized in supplying food and I would tie the food on a rope and slide it down."
6. Wide of Lucky’s leg in a cast
7. SOUNDBITE (Setswana) Lucky Mbizana, food distributor for miners:
“There were police and the army, they were firing rubber bullets and used pepper spray which blurred my vision, leading me to fall down.”
8. Wide of Lucky’s leg in a cast
9. SOUNDBITE (Setswana) Mmastona Mbizana, Mother of two sons involved in mining:
“The mine is what’s keeping us alive, because we don’t go hungry and we didn’t notice that no one was working at home. Because my sons so it as job. We knew that around month end, I would go to the mall and buy groceries and finish other plans but now nothing is moving."
10. Close-up of anonymous miner who spent six months underground (he did not want his identity revealed)
11. SOUNDBITE (Setswana) Anonymous miner: (he did not want his identity revealed)
“The police were standing at the top and we couldn’t no longer get any food supplies and that is when the problem of people getting sick started, others died and there became more dead bodies That’s when we realised it’s becoming bad, it’s like you are in a scary movie but the painful thing was that it was reality and happening.”
12. Wide of mine rescue workers pulling the cage from underground that was used to pull the deceased miners and survivors from the mine shaft
13. Close-up mine rescue workers inspecting the cage that was pulled from the ground
14. Mine rescue workers pulling the cage away from the shaft to the ground level
15. Close-up shaft where hundreds of bodies and recoveries were made by rescue mine workers
STORYLINE:
A miner who spent six months in a disused mine in South Africa has spoken of the horror he experienced after a police operation cut off food and basic supplies to thousands who were illegally digging for gold.
The miner, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said he surfaced on Christmas Day after entering the shaft in July, spending months underground where he experienced extreme hunger and saw many of his fellow diggers dying from starvation and illnesses.
"It’s like you are in a scary movie but the painful thing was that it was reality and actually happening," he said of the ordeal.
The man is one of nearly 2,000 illegal miners who have surfaced from the mine near the town of Stilfontein since August last year when police targeted it as part of an operation that aims to tackle the widespread illicit mining trade.
The miner, a 40-year-old father of six children, exited the mine in December through a separate shaft that had steel stairs. It is extremely difficult to navigate, and he bruised his hands badly on his way out.
Many were trapped and became emaciated from lack of food. Dozens died and their bodies were wrapped in twine and set aside in rows.
A long-awaited rescue operation this week retrieved bodies and brought out more than 240 survivors.
AP Video by Alfonso Nqunjana
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