Trapped SA Miners Plea For Beer & Tobacco To “Conduct Spiritual Cleansing“

Illegal miners in the abandoned Shaft 11 at Stilfontein have asked for volunteers who are helping bring miners back to surface and sending down essentials to be supplied with spiritual cleansing material to prevent more deaths underground.

Illegal miners underground are communicating with community leaders and volunteers through letters.

They have made several pleas in their letters, including a recent one asking for the cleansing material.

The letters are written in Sesotho and isiXhosa.

In the latest letter, written in Sesotho, illegal miners asked for snuff, pipe tobacco, sorghum beer, and disinfectant to be lowered by volunteers into Shaft 11.
Community leaders on the surface confirmed receiving the letter and promised to continue sending food supplies into the shaft, in line with a recent ruling of the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

PLEA FOR BEER AND TOBACCO “FOR SPIRITUAL CLEANSING”

“Greetings to all. We are alive, although it is difficult. Our parents, we are asking for your help. We have noticed that deaths are continuing in the shaft. We have been relying on prayers to prevent more deaths. We are asking for BB pipe tobacco, Tlokwe sorghum beer and Madubula disinfectant to use them to stop the deaths from increasing,” the letter read.

This week food, including mageu (high energy maize drink), instant porridge and rice, and containers of paraffin were lowered into the shaft.

Last week, the severely decomposed body of an illegal miner was pulled out from the shaft. This week alone, eight more dead bodies were retrieved from the shaft by volunteers from the local community.

Volunteers, skilfully using ropes, pulled the bodies up to the surface and the remains were later taken away by a forensic pathology services vehicle.

On Friday, two frail illegal miners from Mozambique were retrieved by the group. The two men were rushed to hospital and remain under police guard.

In the early hours of Friday, six illegal miners, all from Mozambique, were arrested after resurfacing at Shaft 10.

“TRAPPED BY ARMED GANGS UNDERGROUND”

The men said more than 800 zama zamas were kept under watch by 36 armed Basotho men. They claimed armed Basotho men kept food aid delivered into the shaft for themselves only.

The six added Basotho men were selling the food parcels for grams of gold. About six or more zama zamas were forced to share 1kg of instant porridge or a litre of mageu.

Community leader Johannes Qankase claimed they were not aware of Basotho men bullying other illegal miners underground and that the police should handle the matter.

He said the community and volunteers can’t control what happens underground.

Qankase promised they would continue sending food into the shaft and retrieving people.

The process was halted on Friday and is expected to resume on Monday.

Source:- News24