South Africa mine rockfall kills 14, police say

A rockfall at an illegal mine northwest of Johannesburg killed 14 miners, most of them from Lesotho, and left fears that others may still be trapped underground, South African police said Tuesday.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Adele Myburgh said eight other miners were hospitalised and an unknown number could still be underground. Search and rescue operations were under way at Nkaneng, near Rustenburg, about 100 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg in North West province.

Police said the incident was reported late Monday. The miners were allegedly manually digging in an excavated area when the walls caved in, trapping them inside, according to a police statement.

Three of the people treated in hospital were later discharged and detained on suspicion of violating immigration laws.

Police said the area where the rockfall occurred was owned by Sibanye, a global mining and metals processing group. The area is in a province with several established platinum mines.

Thousands of unregistered miners, known as zama zamas, work in South Africa, scavenging abandoned mines for gold and other minerals in dangerous conditions. Myburgh said discarded shafts were dilapidated and had no safety measures.

The South African Federation of Trade Unions said it had repeatedly warned that South Africa had allowed abandoned, derelict and inadequately secured mines to become death traps, environmental hazards and places used by organised criminal syndicates. The union said there were around 6,000 derelict and ownerless mines and abandoned mining sites in the country.

Illegal miners in South Africa come from several countries in the region, driven by poverty and unemployment. The sector has been linked to organised crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in February announced the deployment of the army to help police fight illegal mining, with the activity contributing to major infrastructure damage in some areas.

Around 90 clandestine miners died nearly two years ago when police blocked a disused gold mine near Stilfontein, west of Johannesburg, for weeks from August 2024 in an operation aimed at forcing illegal workers out. Police said on July 31 they had arrested 24 undocumented foreign nationals in the Stilfontein area in an operation against suspected illegal gold mining.