South Africa criticizes for brutal mining raid after 78 corpse bags

South Africa criticizes for brutal mining raid after 78 corpse bags

The South African government faces violent criticism after its measures against illegal mines led to hundreds of miners underground without food and water. This development followed the finding of at least 78 corpses in a shaft this week.

rescue operation for the included miners

rescue workers worked on Wednesday on the third day in a row to find survivors after a court ordered that the miners should be saved. A police spokesman announced on Wednesday afternoon that at least 166 people could be saved from the abandoned shaft. However, over 100 other miners are thought to be dead after they have died of hunger and dehydration underground.

criticism of the union and the opposition

The South Africa union (Safeu) described the deaths in the Stilfontein-Ethruch, which is located about 156 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, as a "massacre". In a explanation expressed that many of the miners, which mostly undocumented and despaired from MoSambik and other South African countries, stated in one of the worst representations state gross negligence in recent history was left behind.

government under pressure

also the democratic alliance (da), which formed an alliance with the ruling ANC party last year, criticized the government's approach. The question asked the question "why the situation was so out of control" and asked for studies on the events in the quarry.

"a government without humanity"

A video filmed by one of the miners showed several body parts wrapped in plastic last week in the mine. In the video there were also shirtless, emaciated men with protruding bones and ribs.

juFtu reported that survivors who came out of the mine, like "wandering ghosts after weeks without food or water", looked like the government that they had acted "without humanity".

"It is incomprehensible that the South African government has let this situation escalate so far. It is true that these miners were involved in illegal mountain work, driven by despair and extreme poverty, but their actions do not justify a conviction for starvation," said the union in its statement.

The price of illegal mining

The police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe informed the reporters in November that the supply of the opencast mine was interrupted in order to force them to leave the area and put an end to illegal mining in South Africa, despite the warnings of Saftu that this hard procedure could end in a tragedy.

South Africa loses more than one billion dollars every year from illegal mining and has committed itself to rigorously combating this trade. There are estimated in the country around 100,000 artisanal working miners who are known on site as "Zama Zamas". Violent regional wars are often associated with the black market for gold.