WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM
RESCUE workers found the bodies of five more miners at Hartebeesfontein mine overnight, taking the death toll to 15. Three more miners are missing, presumed dead. Two teams of rescue workers are tunneling through debris to reach the area where the miners are believed to have been trapped.
The rockburst that killed the miners was set off by a strong earth tremor, which was felt as far afield as Pretoria.
Cosatu said on Tuesday: “This is not the first fatal earth tremor this year. At Deelkraal ten workers died a few months ago. Promises were made by Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Penuell Maduna at Deelkraal that the government would set aside R26-million to conduct investigations into the ongoing slaughter of our members on the mines. Cosatu calls for the urgent release of the R26-million so that we can put a stop to the senseless waste of human life.”
WEDNESDAY, 2.00PM
Two miners seriously injured in the Hartebeesfontein rockburst and placed in intensive care at the Duff Scott Memorial Hospital in Stilfontein were out of danger on Wednesday. Twenty-one other miners with lesser injuries are still in hospital.