On a drizzling Friday afternoon, with tears rolling down her face, Elisa Chauke sat on a blanket on the ground in Khuma township asking her friends if any of the illegal miners had resurfaced from an abandoned mine in Stilfontein, North West.
A few minutes later, Chauke, 52, got up to fetch wood from a nearby bush about 300 metres from the disused mine and handed it over to a group of women cooking food in three-legged pots.
Chauke’s cousin, 39-year-old Robert Lerofolo, is among scores of illegal miners, known as zama zamas, who have been in a stand-off with police all week.
Police cut off supplies of food and water to the zama zamas as part of efforts to force them out and face arrest. However, the miners have held steadfast, refusing to come to the surface.
Chauke is one of many community members of Khuma township, outside Stilfontein, who gathered near the scene of the abandoned mine, to assist the illegal miners holed underground.
Just like Chauke, most of the residents gathered near the scene of the abandoned mine in a bid to assist the miners return to the surface. Chauke told Sunday World she did not know if Lerofolo, a married father of three, was still alive.
“His wife is not feeling well. I think she is stressed by her husband being trapped underground. He is the breadwinner in their family. The family needs their father to support them. The wife is seven months pregnant now. We are sad as a family that he has been trapped for so many months,” said Chauke.
Some residents alleged that about 4 500 men who work as illegal miners were “trapped” underground. Some have reportedly been underground for six months. But police have estimated the number to be between 300 and 400.
One of the residents, Kagiso Gabashane, 39, from Khuma Extension 6, sat on the ground with a rope and tyre next to him. He was part of a group of residents gathered to assist in the rescue mission.
A distraught Gabashane said his sister’s boyfriend had been down the abandoned mine for four months. His sister is seven months pregnant with the boyfriend’s child. Gabashane even wondered if his sister’s boyfriend managed to get the small bag of instant porridge that he managed to send underground through the residents who volunteered to go underground.
Gabashane gave insights into life down in the belly of the earth. He worked underground in the abandoned mine from July until September this year. “It is very dark down there. It is an overcrowded space and sometimes there are a couple of dead bodies lying underground.
Sometimes we find it difficult to breathe,” he told Sunday World. He said the miners underground survive mainly on bread, meat and soft porridge. “We also drink alcohol and cold drinks,” he said.
Despite saying he does not know the cost of items underground, Gabashane said he could make around R1 000 a week from selling foodstuffs such as bread and cold drinks.
Community leader Thandeka Tom said the residents of Khuma supplied food and water to the miners on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tom also denied claims that the miners terrorised the locals of Khuma.
“A lot of these miners are breadwinners in their families. They help their households with buying groceries, clothing and supporting their families with their basic needs. My 36-year-old brother is trapped as well. He is the breadwinner at his home, and supports his wife and two children,” said Tom.
Resident Boitumelo Mils, 27, said since his brother, the family’s sole breadwinner, is still trapped underground, he has had to find other ways to take care of their family.
Mils said he now washes cars and does gardening to support their family since his brother has not resurfaced.
“I wash about seven cars in a day and get paid R50 for each car,” said Mils.
National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said three illegal miners resurfaced at the abandoned mine on Thursday, while the decomposed body of an illegal male miner was recovered by police.
Mathe said the three illegal miners who resurfaced underground were attended to by paramedics, given food and water, and thereafter arrested for engaging in illegal mining.
She said police had barred community members from giving the illegal miners underground food and water. Mathe said this is because when police initially allowed the residents to send food and water underground, it was to assist the miners in garnering enough strength to come up to the surface. However, by Friday afternoon, the miners still refused to resurface, she said.
