Footage shows trapped miners, dead bodies underground after South Africa raid

JOHANNESBURG -At least 400 illegal miners remained trapped underground in South Africa two months after a police raid, a group working on behalf of the miners said on Monday, which provided footage of dozens of dead bodies and emaciated men in the mine.

A spokesperson for the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) did not respond to a request for comment. Makhosonke Buthelezi, spokesperson for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, said bodies had been retrieved from the mine but said no further details could be divulged ahead of an official report. The two videos, which Reuters verified, were obtained by South African miners' rights group Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) on Monday. They received them from miners emerging from the gold mine in North West Province on Jan. 10, when a pulley was restored to the bottom of the cavern.

A Reuters reporter counted what looked like three dozen bodies in the footage. Reuters could not independently confirm that the body-shaped objects wrapped in plastic at the bottom of the mine shaft were corpses.

The first film reportedly showed piles of miners' bodies wrapped in sacks and plastic, while living miners who are still stuck underground pleaded for help. A second video showed shirtless miners looking emaciated, with their ribs protruding.

Police said they blocked miners' supplies of food and water to force them out and arrest them for illegally entering the abandoned mine in search of leftover gold - part of a crackdown on illegal mining that has plagued South Africa for decades.

MACUA spokesperson Magnificent Mndebele said there are more than 400 miners still waiting to be rescued two months after a standoff with South African police.

Mndebele said someone had destroyed a pulley system which was used for lowering supplies to the miners, - and enabling them to get out, but MACUA restored it on Jan. 9.

"The shaft is two kilometres deep. It's impossible for people to climb up," Mndebele said.

South African authorities are currently at the mine with machinery, preparing for a planned rescue this week, Buthelezi confirmed.

"The pulley system was put in place by community members, but it has been replaced with machinery used by mine rescue services," he said. "The mine rescue services were contracted by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy."

(Reporting By Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Tim Cocks, Mark Heinrich and Sharon Singleton)