Drama unfolds as relatives identify bodies
4 June 2009, 06:55
By Alex Eliseev
Wearing his dusty gumboots and guarded by police officers, 21-year-old Khojane Monaheng waits patiently for his turn to enter the mortuary.
All around him, the painful drama unfolds as relatives emerge from the building tearing off their surgical masks and gasping for air.
One woman sobs under the shade of a tree. Another sits on the pavement, her head buried in her hands.
The slow, grim process of trying to identify 63 bodies of gold pirates who died in the belly of Harmony Gold's disused Elands mineshaft in Welkom, Free State, is under way.
Monaheng was down in the dark tunnels when the fire broke out and began to smoke out the scavengers known as the zama-zamas (chance-takers). He had been under for about two weeks. Monaheng wasn't mining for gold but selling food to the zama-zamas. Suddenly, he heard someone shouting that there was smoke.
"We tried to run," he said. "I don't remember but I must have collapsed. Then I found myself at the (Bongani) hospital."
On Wednesday, the young man from Lesotho was taken to the state mortuary to help identify his friend, Moeketsi Maseru, with whom he had sneaked into the mine. The pair had bribed security officers to enter, hidden in a group of legal miners. Monaheng is likely to be charged and tried. It is unclear whether he found his friend.
Nearby, Teboho Msaefana walked out of the overcrowded morgue having identified his cousin, Thabiso Sekonyela. Msaefana said his 25-year-old cousin left their village in Lesotho to earn money in South Africa. In January, he left behind his wife and their recently born child. By March, Msaefana, 23, came to search for him.
On Wednesday, more than two months of searching ended with a decomposed body in a mortuary bursting at its seams. Msaefana will now travel home to deliver the news to his cousin's family and any others whose relatives he will find.
The mortuary's Dr Yusuf Vahed confirmed that of the 63 illegal miners who perished, only six had so far been identified. The process would continue today and possibly tomorrow.
The mortuary is holding twice the normal number of corpses and is housing at least 36 of the miners. The others are due to arrive from another morgue for identification.
The bodies - decomposing by the time they were pulled out of the ground - are stored in a room not cold enough to stop decomposition. Refrigerated trucks stand outside in case more bodies arrive or if the bodies go unidentified for too long. No more bodies were discovered yesterday.
Police revealed that in the early hours of yesterday, six people were detained in connection with illegal mining. It is suspected they are senior syndicate members. Police Director Jacob Tsumane, head of detectives in the Free State, said about 700 miners had been arrested in the area over the past two or three months.
But, speaking to sources at the notorious G-Hostel, where illegal gold is processed and sold, it is clear that there is no shortage of zama-zamas being recruited and trafficked from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique.
"Bosses" run groups of 20 or more miners and manage their work underground, which can last for months without a single surfacing.
The foreigners, a source said, were not accustomed to handling money and were taken advantage of.
They worked in dark, hot, humid tunnels filled with toxic gases and were under constant threat of arrest, confrontation with legal miners, or disasters. If they died underground, their bodies were brought to a working shaft and, where possible, left with a name and a contact number for a relative.
Food and money were smuggled down, gold was smuggled up, and R2 500 paid as a bribe to sneak in and out of the mine.
The zama-zamas have been known to clash violently with the police, but generally exist in peace with legal miners.
"Everything is an inside job," the source revealed.
A senior security source, working at one of the mines and battling to control the zama-zamas, said the problem began and ended with access control.
But, he said, the mines were in denial and paid attention to the pirates only when disasters occurred. He estimated that about 3 000 zama-zamas worked in the Welkom area.
"The zamas will never stop," he said. And massive job cuts were only fuelling the problem.
Today, the hall outside the state mortuary was likely to fill up again.
Wearing his dusty gumboots and guarded by police officers, 21-year-old Khojane Monaheng waits patiently for his turn to enter the mortuary.
All around him, the painful drama unfolds as relatives emerge from the building tearing off their surgical masks and gasping for air.
One woman sobs under the shade of a tree. Another sits on the pavement, her head buried in her hands.
The slow, grim process of trying to identify 63 bodies of gold pirates who died in the belly of Harmony Gold's disused Elands mineshaft in Welkom, Free State, is under way.
Monaheng was down in the dark tunnels when the fire broke out and began to smoke out the scavengers known as the zama-zamas (chance-takers). He had been under for about two weeks. Monaheng wasn't mining for gold but selling food to the zama-zamas. Suddenly, he heard someone shouting that there was smoke.
"We tried to run," he said. "I don't remember but I must have collapsed. Then I found myself at the (Bongani) hospital."
On Wednesday, the young man from Lesotho was taken to the state mortuary to help identify his friend, Moeketsi Maseru, with whom he had sneaked into the mine. The pair had bribed security officers to enter, hidden in a group of legal miners. Monaheng is likely to be charged and tried. It is unclear whether he found his friend.
Nearby, Teboho Msaefana walked out of the overcrowded morgue having identified his cousin, Thabiso Sekonyela. Msaefana said his 25-year-old cousin left their village in Lesotho to earn money in South Africa. In January, he left behind his wife and their recently born child. By March, Msaefana, 23, came to search for him.
On Wednesday, more than two months of searching ended with a decomposed body in a mortuary bursting at its seams. Msaefana will now travel home to deliver the news to his cousin's family and any others whose relatives he will find.
The mortuary's Dr Yusuf Vahed confirmed that of the 63 illegal miners who perished, only six had so far been identified. The process would continue today and possibly tomorrow.
The mortuary is holding twice the normal number of corpses and is housing at least 36 of the miners. The others are due to arrive from another morgue for identification.
The bodies - decomposing by the time they were pulled out of the ground - are stored in a room not cold enough to stop decomposition. Refrigerated trucks stand outside in case more bodies arrive or if the bodies go unidentified for too long. No more bodies were discovered yesterday.
Police revealed that in the early hours of yesterday, six people were detained in connection with illegal mining. It is suspected they are senior syndicate members. Police Director Jacob Tsumane, head of detectives in the Free State, said about 700 miners had been arrested in the area over the past two or three months.
But, speaking to sources at the notorious G-Hostel, where illegal gold is processed and sold, it is clear that there is no shortage of zama-zamas being recruited and trafficked from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique.
"Bosses" run groups of 20 or more miners and manage their work underground, which can last for months without a single surfacing.
The foreigners, a source said, were not accustomed to handling money and were taken advantage of.
They worked in dark, hot, humid tunnels filled with toxic gases and were under constant threat of arrest, confrontation with legal miners, or disasters. If they died underground, their bodies were brought to a working shaft and, where possible, left with a name and a contact number for a relative.
Food and money were smuggled down, gold was smuggled up, and R2 500 paid as a bribe to sneak in and out of the mine.
The zama-zamas have been known to clash violently with the police, but generally exist in peace with legal miners.
"Everything is an inside job," the source revealed.
A senior security source, working at one of the mines and battling to control the zama-zamas, said the problem began and ended with access control.
But, he said, the mines were in denial and paid attention to the pirates only when disasters occurred. He estimated that about 3 000 zama-zamas worked in the Welkom area.
"The zamas will never stop," he said. And massive job cuts were only fuelling the problem.
Today, the hall outside the state mortuary was likely to fill up again.
- This article was originally published on page 3 of The Star on June 04, 2009
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