The bodies of five illegal miners are still inside an abandoned mine near Barberton, said Mpumalanga police on Monday.
”Today [Monday] we are going to ask the mine’s rescue team to help us,” said Constable Jabu Ndubane, explaining that the operation at the abandoned Fairview mine will be risky.
Police on Saturday found the area where the miners’ bodies were. They were all believed to have died following an accident while illegally mining.
The general manager of Barberton Mines, Tony de Beer, said he had not been asked to help, but would negotiate with the police if they did ask.
”They haven’t approached me at all.”
He described the area where the bodies were as a closed-up section at the back of the Fairview mine. The ”very bad area” had been abandoned in the 1930s or 1940s.
Any attempt to rescue people there or recover bodies would mean putting other people at risk.
”The problem is, do I put my people at risk?” asked De Beer.
Miners often illegally break into disused sections of mines to dig for gold, frequently for syndicates. — Sapa