Probe into deaths of 78 miners at Stilfontein
A probe is underway into the deaths of 78 suspected illegal miners who have been pulled out from the Stilfontein mine in the North West.
A cage with rescue experts had been sent down to the disused shaft 11 to check if there were any more illegal miners underground.
The NATJoints Operation Vala Umgodi has been on a rescue mission since Monday.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says a total of 1907 miners have resurfaced since 12 August.
"Margaret shaft was 1,437 plus the additional seven that have resurfaced over the last two days. We have Buffel’s 11 Shaft, where 365 illegal miners have resurfaced, and at shaft 10, we have 103 miners," said Mathe.
READ: Rescue team conducts final sweep at Stilfontein mine
"In terms of nationalities, we have 1,125 Mozambicans that have been arrested, Zimbabweans we are standing at 465, Lesotho Nationals 200, South Africans 26, one Malawian and one Congolese."
She says the identification of deceased miners is underway.
"Only two have been identified thus far because of the challenge that the majority of them are undocumented. Some of them it was decomposed bodies that came up mostly as bones. So that DNA process to try and identify who these individuals are is underway."
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