Frantic rescue effort

Desperation as community strives to reach illegal miners still underground.

- Thando Nondywana

Desperation and fear is mounting among community members as they help retrieve suspected illegal miners remaining underground in an abandoned mining shaft in Stilfontein, near Klerksdorp.

Among the distressed families from Khuma township is Zinzi Tom, who believes her brother is among the estimated 4,000 miners.

"When the operation started, we were already here," Tom said. "My brother has been gone for three months, but he'd occasionally come up to see his wife and two children. Illegal mining changed him - he was a gangster, but it allowed him to support his family. Even though we knew it was wrong, he had stopped tormenting the community,"

Tom said her brother had been involved in illegal mining for two years, sometimes staying underground for six months at a time.

"We knew he was in this type of work because we know the living conditions of Khuma; unemployment and poverty are high but people were able to provide - even though it is illegal. Government has neglected us. It cares little about us. These mines were legally operating, but no development was done here," she said.