DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, Rescue operations involving volunteers under way in Stilfontein amid reports that hundreds are still trapped underground.Two men have been pulled out from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa after a court ordered the police to lift a blockade and allow the rescue of hundreds of workers believed to be involved in “illegal” mining activities.
Rescue operations involving volunteers were under way on Sunday in Stilfontein, southwest of the executive capital Pretoria, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Haru Mutasa, reporting from the site.
The rescued men were visibly weakened as they emerged from the mine with the help of volunteers. Others are reportedly too weak to be rescued.
Mutasa said it could take up to 45 minutes for the volunteers to rescue one person from the mining shaft.
“Police are seen guarding the entrance to the abandoned mine, and they said that they are here to ensure that there are no criminal activities,” she said, noting that activists have been demanding that officers leave the area.
Authorities had earlier blocked the mine’s entrance, cutting the supply of food and water to those inside, in what police described as “a crackdown” on alleged illegal mining. The move, however, caused outrage among rights groups and labour organisations.
“It is despicable that we have to have this kind of conversation about what to do in the situation involving poor, Black, weakened working-class people,” Mametlwe Sebei, a human rights lawyer, told Al Jazeera.
“They are in very hazardous and in very horrific conditions,” Sebei said, urging for the workers’ …