By Mark Ogagan
Some suspected illegal miners are feared dead and others still trapped in mineshafts in Orkney and Stilfontein in the North West.
Scores of suspected illegal miners have already resurfaced from the mineshafts.
One of them, who has managed to evade arrest, says thousands of people are trapped underground, without food or water.
Provincial police spokesperson, Sabata Mokgwabone says illegal mining is a serious crime.
He says, ”We are dealing with criminal activity here and those that are committing crimes they will be dealt with accordingly and they will be processed according to the law, because remember South Africa is a constitutional democracy and we cannot allow lawlessness in our country.”
“We must also emphasise the fact that we are not aware about the people that are actually trapped underground, because I’m not sure what people are saying when they say people are trapped underground.”
Mokgwabone adds, “We have what we call mine shaft combating forum, that is the structure that is actually dealing with this particular matter where we have quite a number of stakeholders. If indeed there was something like people being trapped underground I think that should have been reported accordingly.”
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