BARBERTON- -At this stage no arrest has been made or charges been made against the illegal miners who survived yesterday at Agnes mine after a rockfall that killed four illegal miners whose bodies were retrieved.
The spokesperson of the police, Col Mjoli Bhembe confirmed that no one has been arrested as he said: “Police received the information from a concerned community member and when we arrived, we discovered that some people who are allegedly members of the illegal miners, were already assisting their friends who were trapped underground before the expert rescuers reached the place where the incident occurred because it was not easy to get inside to see what was happening.
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“As a result, we did not make an arrest of the survivors because we were relying on hearsay and we don’t have a proof that indeed those who clad like miners were illegal miners. We need to have a proof before we can arrest a person,” he said.
He added that they will continue with the investigation. “But it does not mean that we are done, we are going to use the information that we managed to get to tackle the problem of illegal mining which is a serious problem. Let me also indicate that it’s not only a problem that is affecting this town alone, it’s a national problem because there are provinces who are also facing a similar problem,” said Bhembe.
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According to the information obtained by this publication, it is alleged that the team, “Zama Zama”went underground on Tuesday night to blast a rock so that they get access and dig gold. It is also alleged that around 23.00 on Tuesday they managed to blast the rock, unfortunately the rock fell on the four illegal miners who died underground.
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One of the people who requested to speak with this publication anonymously said: “The illegal miners started to dig three months ago, it’s just that they were able to play their game well and most of them are here in the country illegally.
A majority of them come from Swaziland and Mozambique. Usually they blast the rocks in the middle of the night and as we used to hear a huge sound coming from the side where the mine is situated. After they get the gold, they met near Mhlahlane River and left,” he explained.
