South Africa authorities face scrutiny over mine response

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

South African authorities face growing anger over their handling of a standoff with illegal miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine, as the death toll from the incident reached at least 87.

Authorities may face an investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out" by cutting off their food supplies.

The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.

Community groups launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year they would not help the hundreds of miners because they were “criminals.”

That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa's biggest trade unions.

Police and the mine owners were also accused of taking away ropes and dismantling a pulley system the miners used to enter the mine and send supplies down from the surface.

A court ordered authorities last year to allow food and water to be sent down to the miners, while another court ruling last week forced them to launch a rescue operation.

Mannas Fourie, CEO of the Mines and Rescue service, hailed the rescue and recovery operation as a "world first" with a "unique" machine that was "developed and designed in South Africa by the mining industry."

"We didn't anticipate that we will be so quick with the operation," he added.

Many say the unfolding disaster underground was clear weeks ago, when community members sporadically pulled decomposing bodies out of the mine, some with notes attached pleading for food to be sent down.

"This government must make a plan and they must go to court. They must account for these bodies," said Mandla Charles, a community volunteer helping with the rescue operation.

South Africa's second biggest political party, which is part of a government coalition, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish an independent inquiry.

Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were working illegally in the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August last year.