The blocked shaft where dozens died

When Mzwandile Mkwayi was lowered into the South African mine in a red metal cage attached to a hoist above the ground, the first thing that struck him was the smell.

“Let me tell you something,” he told the BBC, “those bodies really smelled bad.”

When he got home later that day, he told his wife that he couldn’t eat the meat she had cooked.

“This is because when I spoke to the miners, they told me that some of them have to eat other (people) inside the mine because there is no way for them to find food. And they were eating cockroaches, too,” he said by phone from his home.

Allegations that the miners had resorted to eating human flesh to survive were also made by other miners who were rescued in December in statements submitted to the Supreme Court.

Mkwayi, an ex-convict known locally as Shasha, lives in the town of Khuma, which is close to the disused Stilfontein mine. The 36-year-old, who served seven years in prison for robbery, volunteered to go down to help with rescue operations.

“I am rehabilitated from correctional services and volunteered because people in our community were looking for help for their children and siblings.

“The rescue company said there was no one who wanted to go down. So my friend Mandla and I agreed to volunteer so that we could help our brothers surface and retrieve the dead bodies.”

But even though he wanted to help, the 25-minute journey down the 2km (1.2 miles) deep shaft filled him with dread.

The crane would occasionally stop and go, leaving him hanging in the darkness. Upon entering the mine, he was shocked by what he saw.

“There were a lot of bodies, over 70 bodies and about 200 people who were dehydrated.

“I felt very weak when I saw them, it was a painful thing to see. But Mandla and I decided that we have to be strong and not show them how we feel so we can motivate them.”

This story contains video that some people may find disturbing.

Miners who had been waiting for help for months gave them a hero’s welcome.

“They were very, very happy,” he says.

The miners were stranded there after a national police operation to end illegal mining at disused sites, which were closed as the industry – once the backbone of the country’s economy – shrank.

It was no longer profitable for multinational mining companies to operate in many places, but the promise of finding gold deposits was a magnet for many desperate people – especially undocumented migrants.

Thousands of shafts were abandoned.

In November, police stepped up their efforts at the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein, barricading the shaft entrance and refusing food and water.

Before the rescue operation began on Monday, the local community tried to take matters into their own hands by running a rope down the shaft to try and pull some of the men out.

They also sent messages and told the miners that help was coming.

“So when we got there, they were already waiting for the faucet. Now when they see us, they see us as their presidents, as their messiahs: the people who came from outside the hole to help them surface again.”

Police say the illegal miners could always go out on their own, but refused to do so because they feared arrest. But Mkwayi disagrees: “It’s a lie that people didn’t want to come out. These people desperately needed help, they were dying.”

While at the mine site on Tuesday, the BBC saw dozens of men rescued.

They looked emaciated, their bones showing through their clothes. Some could barely walk and had to be assisted by medical personnel.

In submissions submitted to the Supreme Court, the illegal miners described in vivid detail the slow and agonizing death of their peers. Many are said to have starved to death.

“From September to October 2024. the lack of even basic means of livelihood was absolute and survival became a daily battle against hunger,” said one miner.

Mkwayi says the men he rescued were so frail that the rescue cage, which was designed to carry only seven healthy adults, could hold 13 of them.

“They were very dehydrated and emaciated so we were able to fit more in the cage because they weren’t going to survive two more days in the hole. They would be dead if we didn’t get them out as soon as possible.”

The volunteers were also responsible for the removal of corpses.

“The rescue services gave us bags and told us to put the bodies in them and carry them into the cage, which we did with the help of some of the miners.”

The rescue operation was originally supposed to last at least a week, but after just three days, volunteers said no one was left underground.

Authorities sent a camera into the shaft to do a final sweep. They say the mine will now be permanently sealed.

But the experience has had a profound effect on Mkwayi.

At one point during the conversation, he asked for the question to be repeated, explaining that his hearing had been affected by going down the mine, possibly from the pressure.

But the strongest impact came from what he witnessed.

“I have to tell you that I am traumatized. I will never forget the sight of these people for the rest of my life.”

For activists and unions helping the community, the deaths of the 87 people in the mine amounted to a “massacre” carried out by the authorities.

The use of the emotional word has led to comparisons with police shooting of 34 striking miners at Marikanaabout 150 km (93 mi) from Stilfontein, in 2012.

But no triggers were pulled this time. Instead, many of the men appear to have starved to death.

Authorities reject the idea that they are responsible.

The government began a crackdown on illegal mining in December 2023. through Operation Vala Umgodi (meaning ‘closing the hole’ in isiZulu).

Abandoned mines were taken over by gangs, often led by ex-employees, who sold what they found on the black market.

People were recruited into this illegal trade, either by force or voluntarily, and forced to spend months underground mining for minerals. The government says illegal mining cost the South African economy $3.2bn (£2.6bn) in 2024 alone.

As part of the police operation, entry points to various disused mines were blocked, along with food and water supplies, in a bid to drive out the illegal miners, known locally as zama zamas (which translates as “take a risk”).

While Vala Umgodi was a great success in other provinces, the old Buffelsfontein gold mine presented a unique challenge.

Before the police operation, most of the miners were only able to reach the underground via a makeshift pulley system operated by people on the surface.

But they then abandoned the top of the shaft when security officials arrived in large numbers in August, leaving those inside the mine stranded.

Community members then stepped in to help by pulling several people out with ropes, but it was a long and difficult process.

There were other difficult and dangerous exits and a total of nearly 2,000 reappeared – most were arrested and remain in police custody.

Why others did not come out is not clear – they may have been too weak or threatened by gang members in the mine – but they were left in desperate circumstances.

Of the 87 dead, only two have been identified, police said Thursday, explaining that the fact that many of them were undocumented migrants made the process more difficult.

“We think the government’s hands are bloody,” Magnificent Mndebele of the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Makua) group told the BBC.

He claimed the miners were not warned what was going to happen before the police operation began.

For the past two months, Makua has been at the forefront of the various legal battles launched to force the government to first allow supplies and then undertake a rescue operation.

The charge against the government echoes previous statements by families who said authorities killed their loved ones.

They had taken a hard line since the operation intensified. In November, one minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, made the infamous statement during a press briefing that they would be “smoked out”.

The state refused to allow food to be sent or anyone to help extract the miners, giving up only after several successful court appeals.

In November, small portions of instant corn and water reached the shaft, but in a court statement one of the miners said it was not enough for the hundreds of men below, many of whom were too weak to even chew and swallow them.

More food was delivered in December, but again she could not sustain the men.

Given that the operation to remove the men and the bodies lasted only three days, what is difficult for Mr Mndebele to understand is why this could not have been done earlier when it was clear, that there is a problem.

“We’re disappointed with our government, frankly, because this help came too late.”

While the government has yet to formally respond to these allegations, police have vowed to continue wider operations to clear the country’s disused mines until May this year.

Speaking to journalists in Stilfontein on Tuesday, Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe was unequivocal. He said the government would step up the fight against illegal mining, which he described as a crime and “an attack on the economy”.

On Thursday, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was a little more conciliatory.

“I understand and accept that this is an emotional issue. Everyone wants to judge … but it would help us all as South Africans to wait until the pathologists are done and done with their work,” he said.

Police defended their actions, saying that providing food to miners would “allow crime to flourish”.

Illegal miners are accused of encouraging crime in the communities where they operate.

A number of stories have been published in the local media linking zama zamas to various rapes and murders.

But for Mkwayi, who put his own safety at risk to help the miners, the men at the Stilfontein mine were just trying to make a living.

“People abseiled 2 kilometers and risked their lives to put food on the table for their families.”

He said he wants the government to give licenses to artisanal miners who are forced into disused mines because of South Africa’s high unemployment rate.

“If your children are hungry, you won’t think twice about going there because you have to feed them. You will risk your life to put food on the table.”