/ 29 April 1999

RESCUERS TO MISSING MINERS

RESCUERS may be close to reaching missing miners Lawrence Molise Tsolo and John Befile Delekile as the search was narrowed to an area of about 300 square metres on Wednesday night. Anglogold spokesman Andries Van Zyl said rescue teams have reached the stopes where the missing men were working when the earthquake, measuring 4,6 on the Richter scale, struck. The two miners have been missing underground at Welkom’s Matjhabeng mine in the Free State since Friday. About 1000 of their fellow mineworkers were safely brought to the surface with emergency power on Friday after the mine’s shaft elevators failed when a substation was damaged in the quake.