Horror as mining disaster survivor claims colleagues ‘resorted to cannibalism’

Two survivors of a mining disaster in claimed some of their colleagues “resorted to cannibalism” as their only means of staying alive after police blocked their food and water.

In South Africa, illegal miners make a living by trespassing in old gold mines to retrieve what is left. In August year, police began to attempt to force people out of the old Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, near Stilfontein in the North West province, by blocking food and water.

Trapped nearly a mile under the earth, the illegal miners were forced to find ways of preventing death from hunger – including, according to two survivors, eating human flesh.

“They cut parts of legs, arms, and ribs for sustenance. They decided it was their only remaining option for survival,” one unnamed man told The .

He claimed he and the second survivor did not take part, instead eating cockroaches to stay alive after food supply ran out. The pair entered the shaft in July 2024 before making their way to the surface in December.

The two mining survivors explained how “food, medicine, alcohol and beverages were once plentiful,” as they made £400 per month, but things took a turn for the worse as officials tried to crack down on their activities.

Last week saw rescuers recover 78 bodies and 246 survivors from a shaft of one the country’s deepest mines.

The government has tried to crack down on the illegal business, taking a hard-line approach to what it says are ruthless criminal gangs.

Due to the shafts being too dangerous to enter as many criminal gang members are armed, police opted for stopping supplies in the hope to “smoke them out”. Authorities claimed the miners were able to make their way out but were resisting to avoid arrest and deportation.

The figure of miners returning to the surface before appearing in court stands at more than 1,300.

As months went on and supplies were rationed, locals claimed the remaining people were either trapped or too weak to get out. Courts then decided to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered as well as a mining rescue company.

The images of emaciated survivors and body bags being dragged to the surface has led to police accusations of a “massacre”, as the country’s second-largest trade union federation called the incident “one of the most horrific displays of state wilful negligence in recent history”.

However, Gwede Mantashehe, the mining minister, said this week: “If you go to a dangerous place such as a neglected mine and stay there for about three months, starving yourself to death, how does that become the responsibility of the state?”