‘Inhumane' mine under fire (The Times)

AS THE grieving families of the 63 illegal miners killed in an underground fire gathered at a mortuary in Welkom to identify their loved ones yesterday, a human rights organisation slammed the "inhumane" attitude towards the dead.

The national director of Lawyers for Human Rights, advocate Jacob van Garderen, also bemoaned the fact that the illegal miners, known as zama-zamas, had to recoverer the bodies of their colleagues themselves.They received little help from the mining company or emergency services in the Free State town. Van Garderen said: "We are not condoning the activity of illegal mining, but the human element cannot be forgotten. The mining industry can do a lot more to prevent this from happening.  ‘‘One can expect more sympathy from those in the industry."

The families of the illegal miners killed in the fire in a disused shaft at Harmony Gold's disused Eland operation gathered at the Welkom mortuary yesterday. An acrid stench hung in the air and authorities had to move some of the dead to mortuaries in towns nearby. The Welkom mortuary could not cope with the large numbers of bodies that had arrived since Friday.

Free State head of detectives, director Jacob Tsumane, said that two more bodies were found in another mine shaft yesterday, bringing the death toll to 63.  He said: "We are hoping that no more dead bodies will be found, but we don't know as yet how many people were down there."  Superintendent Motantsi Ma-khele confirmed that six people were being questioned about their role in illegal mining. Tsumane said: "We hope that no more dead bodies will be found, but we don't know as yet how many people were down there."

Hundreds of illegal miners disappear down disused shafts for months on end. Harmony Gold chief executive Graham Briggs said he was surprised that the National Union of Mineworkers was blaming the company for the disaster.  He said: "We all had a meeting on Tuesday and this was not the spirit in which the meeting took place."

Briggs said the company takes responsibility for its own security measures, but it was agreed that a combined effort between the company, police, unions and government was needed to put an end to illegal mining. "We at Harmony Gold have taken the issue of people being bribed to give access to our mines very seriously. Since January we have charged 77 of our employees and 45 contractors over these issues."

Tsumane told The Times that illegal mining was a huge problem in the area and the police faced a massive challenge because the miners have access "all over".In the Welkom mining area, there are about 23 operating and non-operating shafts. Pirate miners have found ways of gaining access to all of them - sometimes walking as far as 30km underground to reach the targeted area.

Werner Swart, Nkosana Lekotjolo and Pumza Fihlani